When Hermione met Fleur
by xyouaremylobsterx
Summary: A bit A/U, set in the 4th series, but there's no Tournament. Hermione meets Fleur when she goes to Hogwarts for Foreign exchange, and its love at first sight for her, but she finds that chasing after someone isnt as easy as she had thought.
1. Chapter 1  Eye Contact

_**Hello my fellow readers, I just wanted to say that this is my first Harry Potter fic and I've tried to make it as original as I could, but it's pretty hard when there's already many great stories out there :D **_

_**This story is based on the film 'When Harry met Sally' but in Harry Potter style. The pairing is Hermione and Fleur because, well we all know that they should have been together really, but if you don't like then simply don't read. And I think this is all I can say for now, so please Read and Enjoy. **_

_**Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story. You'll probably notice this within my first few chapters but I do turn it into my own words more often after that. I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. **_

**When Hermione met Fleur**

_**30th October 2005**_

**A pale faced, bushy haired girl woke up to the sounds of chatter and excitement, for today was the day the two foreign exchange school's were coming to join theirs. Everyone couldn't have been more enthusiastic for the day's events. **

**This young girl was one of the few who weren't so excited; she just merely saw it as more students adding to her school. Though she loved the place, she found that some of the girls she had to share a room with could be quite irritating at times. Like this morning for instance, she wasn't even ready to get up yet, Hermione was going to be an irritable mood for the remainder of the day now. **

**The day seemed to have gone quite fast for Hermione, one minute she'd be in potions class – watching her two best friends Harry and Ron muck about – and then the next she's having lunch in the Grand Hall. But even though the day was speeding ahead it didn't mean peoples conversations were, it seemed the more she heard about girls betting on each other that the boys were going to be cute the more time seemed to just slow down. That annoyed her the most, why did she have to be surrounded by all these young witches, she'd prefer nothing more than to be up on her bed reading the latest workbook she had assigned to her. But it seemed the girls always had other ideas, unfortunately. **

**It was now time for Hogwarts School to now become Beuxbatons and Durmstrung schools too, and Hermione was dreading it. Their house leader, Professor McGonagall was now quickly leading her animated students to the Entrance Hall. **

"**Follow me, please" said Professor McGonagall, "first-years in front… no pushing…" **

**They filed down the front steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Hermione standing in between Ron and Harry, in the fourth row from the front saw Dennis Creevey positively shivering with anticipation among other first-years. **

"**It's nearly six" said Ron, checking his watch (this is the time the schools were meant to arrive) and then staring down the drive which lead to the front gates.**

"**How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?" **

"**I doubt it" said Hermione. **

"**How then, broomsticks?" Harry suggested looking up at the starry sky. **

"**I don't think so… not from that far away"**

"**A port key?" Ron asked "or they could Apparate –maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen wherever they come from?"**

"**You can't Apparate inside Hogwarts grounds, how often do I have to tell you?" said Hermione impatiently. **

**They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was moving. Hermione was starting to get cold. She wished they'd hurry up… maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance. Then Dumbledore (their head teacher) called out from the back row, where he stood with the other teachers – "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beuxbatons approaches!" **

"**Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions. **

"**There!" yelled a sixth-year, pointing over the forest. **

**Something large, much larger than a broomstick, was hurtling across the deep blue sky towards the castle, growing larger all the time. **

"**It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first-years, losing her head completely. **

"**Don't be stupid… it's a flying house!" said Dennis Creevey. Dennis's guess was closer… as the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest. Then the next thing they could see was a gigantic, powder blue, horse drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring towards them, pulled through the air a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant. **

**The front three rows of students drew backwards as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed – then, with an almighty crash the horses hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground. A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels. **

**Hermione just had time to see that the door of the carriage had a coat of arms before it opened. A girl in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forwards, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor and unfolded a set of golden steps. She sprang back respectfully. Then Hermione saw a shiny, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman she had ever seen in her life. A few other people gasped, she wasn't the only one thinking that then. **

**Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too. Some of them standing on tiptoe, they wanted to see the woman better. Her face relaxed into a gracious smile, and she started to walk towards Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it. **

"**My dear Madame Maxime" he said "welcome to Hogwarts." **

"**Dumbly-Dorr" said Madam Maxime, in a deep voice "I 'ope I find you well?" **

"**On excellent form, I thank you" said Dumbledore. **

"**My pupils" said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her. **

**Hermione, whose attention had been focused completely upon Madame Maxime, now started to notice that around a dozen girls – all, by the look of them, in their late teens – had emerged from the carriage and was now standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few of them started to wrap scarves and shawls around their heads. From what Hermione could see of their faces, they were staring at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces. After a bit more small talk between both head teachers Madame Maxime finally realised that her horses were going to be treated with proper care, so turned to her students. **

"**Come" she said superiorly to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the steps. As Hermione watched all the French witches make their way inside she caught the eye of a certain blonde. Then it was like her world stopped spinning altogether, the voices she could hear before were now miles away. All Hermione could see was this one person, and for a split second she thought the girl was thinking the exact same thing. As she slowly started to make her way pass, Hermione never losing eye contact, she saw the tips of the blonde's luscious lips turn up into a smile. Hermione found herself giddily smiling back, then when she realised this she blushed a deep red, she was just thankful it was dark out so maybe the girl didn't see her. Then her little world came back down to earth as the girl broke away the eye contact and went inside. Hermione wished she could be inside as the coldness instantly made its way back to her, now all she wanted to do was get this other school over and done with so she could go inside and see that beautiful blonde girl all over again. Her insides started tingling at just the very thought of her… this was a new feeling, Hermione didn't now whether to be worried or not. **

**Once the Durmstrung lot arrived (in an old looking ship, coming in through the water, something Hermione was not expecting) and the Hogwarts students were introduced to Karkaroff – the Durmstrung schools headmaster – the students were finally allowed inside. Well after Ron and many girls finished staring after Viktor Krum (a famous Quidditch player 'apparently') Hermione was finally inside. The warmth hitting her, like a massive heat wave, she just smiled to herself and made her way to the Grand Hall with everybody else. **

**When she got inside, Hermione could still hear the excited ramblings from Ron about the fact that Krum was here, she rolled her eyes at this, typical Ronald. **

**They walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. Ron took care to sit on the side facing the doorway, because Krum and his fellow Durmstrung students were still gathered around it, apparently unsure about where they should sit. The students from Beuxbatons had chosen seats at the Ravenclaw table. Hermione couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at this, she was really looking forward to getting to see that girl again – maybe even talk to her too. But then she looked at the rest of the girls faces and could see that they were looking around the Great Hall with glum expressions on their faces. Three of them were still clutching scarves and shawls around their heads. **

"**It's not _that_ cold" she said irritably, "why didn't they bring cloaks?" **

"**Over here! Come and sit over here!" Ron hissed. "Over here! Hermione, budge up, make a space-" **

"**What?"**

"**Too late" said Ron bitterly. **

**Viktor Krum and his friends had settled themselves at the Slytherins table. Hermione could see Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle looking very smug about this. As she watched, Malfoy bent forwards to speak to Krum. **

"**Yeah, that's right, smarm up to him Malfoy" said Ron scathingly. "I bet Krum can see right through him, though… bet he gets people fawning all over him all the time… where do you reckon they're going to sleep" and here go all the questions' thought Hermione rolling her eyes as she did so. She just decided to look back at the girls again, zoning out on Ron's star-struck self. But then she zoned back once she heard Harry saying something about the girls. **

"**They look a lot happier than the Beuxbatons lot"**

**The Durmstrung boys were pulling off their heavy furs and looking up at the starry black ceiling with expressions of interest on their faces. Up at the staff table, Filch, the caretaker, was adding chairs. He was wearing his mouldy old tail coat in honour of the occasion. Hermione was surprised to see he was adding four chairs, two on either side of Dumbledore's. **

"**But there are only two extra people" Harry said "Why's Filch putting up four chairs? Who else is coming" Harry seemed to be reading Hermione's mind, as she was just thinking the same thing. **

**When all the students had entered the hall and settled down at their house tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime. It seemed when their Headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beuxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed, but they seemed quite unembarrassed, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down. Dumbledore, however, remained standing, a silence fell over the Great Hall. **

"**Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and – most particularly – guests" said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be most comfortable and enjoyable." **

**One of the Beuxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh. **

"**No one's making you stay here!" Hermione whispered, bristling at her. That's when Hermione noticed it, when she looked even closer she could see a familiar set of bright blonde hair, and immediately knew who she was; it was the beautiful girl from outside. And just when she was starting to like her…**

"**I now invite you all to eat, drink and make yourselves at home!" finished Dumbledore. **

**He sat down, and Hermione saw Karkaroff lean forward and engage him in conversation. **

**The dishes filled with food as usual. Hermione noticed there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than she had ever seen before, including some that was foreign. **

"**What's _that_?" said Ron, pointing at a large dish of some sort of shellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding. Hermione recognised it straight away. **

"**Bouillabaisse" she said. **

"**Bless you" said Ron. **

"**It's _French_" she said back "I had it on holiday, summer before last, it's very nice."**

"**I'll take your word for it" said Ron, helping himself to black pudding.**

**Hermione noticed that now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrung students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep, blood red. **

**Hagrid then joined the Great Hall feast and slide into his seat at the very end, he waved at Hermione, Harry and Ron with a heavily bandaged hand. **

"**Skrewts doing alright, Hagrid?" Harry called.**

"**Thrivin'," Hagrid called back happily. **

"**Yeah, I'll just bet they are" said Ron quietly "looks like they've finally found a food they like, doesn't it? Hagrid's fingers." This got a chuckle from Harry. **

**At that moment, a voice said "Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" It was the girl, the one Hermione hadn't been able to get off her mind since they're little eye contact thing outside. And now here she was right behind her at talking distance yet Hermione was still too scared to look at her. But then she remembered that she isn't the only French girl here, and that she could easily be another student instead. So Hermione finally turned around to check and once she did, she was blown away all over again; maybe even more so than before, if that's even possible. The girl had now removed her muffler; a long sheet of silvery blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white even teeth. **

**Ron went purple. He stared up at her, opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out except a faint gurgling noise.**

"**Yeah, have it" said Harry, pushing the dish towards the girl. **

"**You'ave finished wiz it?" **

"**Yeah" Ron said breathlessly "yeah it was excellent." **

**The girl picked up the dish and then gave Hermione one quick sideways glance before carrying it carefully to the Ravenclaw table. The girl wanted to talk to her, she wanted Hermione to have been the one to answer back but Hermione was just as breathless as Ron was, and in all honesty, it kind-of scared her. Ron was still staring at the girl as though he had never seen one before. Harry started to laugh. The sound seemed to jog Ron back to his senses. Much to Hermione's annoyance, 'why did he have to stare at her like that' she thought. **

"**She's a veela" he said hoarsely to Harry. **

"**Of course she isn't!" said Hermione tartly "I don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!" **

**But she wasn't entirely right about that. As the girl crossed the hall, many boys' heads turned, and some of them seemed to have become temporarily speechless, just like Ron. **

"**I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl!" said Ron, leaning sideways so he could keep a clear view of her. "They don't make them like that at Hogwarts!" **

"**I know" Hermione found herself saying, she couldn't help but stare at the French girl too, she was hypnotising. But she'd never let them now that, that's why she was secretly thankful that Harry was too busy looking at Cho Chang to hear what she said. **

"**When you've both put your eyes back in" said Hermione, noticing that someone had just entered the Great Hall. "You'll be able to see who's just arrived" she then pointed up to the staff table. The two remaining empty seats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff's other side, while Mr Crouch, Percy's boss, was next to Madame Maxime. **

"**What are they doing here?" said Harry in surprise. **

"**They organised the exchange didn't they" said Hermione, realisation kicking in "I suppose they wanted to be here to see them settle in" **

**When the second course arrived they noticed a number of unfamiliar puddings, too. Ron examined an odd sort of pale blancmange closely, and then moved it carefully a few inches to his right, so that it would be clearly visible from the Ravenclaw table. The French veela girl appeared to have eaten enough, however, as she did not come over to get it. Hermione felt a tinge of disappointment at that, she wanted a chance to talk to her again, but quickly shook the thought off. Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. **

"**I would like to say a few words of explanation about this year" said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "I would like to introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr Bartiemus Crouch, Head of Department of International Magical Co-operation" – there was a smattering of polite applause – "and Mr Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Foreign Exchange" – there was a much louder round of applause this time. **

"**Mr Bagman and Mr Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last month on the arrangements for this year's Foreign Exchange, which as we all know only happens every 5 years" Dumbledore continued "they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime in staying at Hogwarts for the remainder of the year. Beuxbatons and Durmstrung schools will be staying in their chosen temporary houses so will not need to be joining any houses." A few groans were heard around the hall, mainly from Hogwarts girls wishing that the boys would sleep in their cabins. **

"**There shall also be a little welcoming dance for you all, but that shall be explained later on, and as for classes, seeing as the students have come here to see what life is like for us over here, all Beuxbatons and Durmstrung students will be added to classes for the year." A few groans came from the teachers at that last comment, Professor Snape looking even more annoyed than usual. Probably at the fact that he'll have to be teaching even more students, which means more talking during lessons – his worst nightmare. **

"**Now, I think it's time for bed. Goodnight to you all." Dumbledore said, checking the time as he did so. **

**Everyone started to head to their dormitories afterwards, Ron mumbling about wanting Krum to share the dorm with him as it would be 'fun' throughout the whole walk. Hermione decided to zone out again after she heard the first Krum that came out of his mouth, and started thinking about the French girl instead - at least she'd be able to sleep properly tonight. **

_**I hope you liked it, I tried my best but if you have any comments please feel free to do so, all reviews are loved **_


	2. Chapter 2 Bumping into her

**_Thank you for the reviews and story alerts, they are all much loved _****_J Here's the next chap…Enjoy!_**

**_ Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story. You'll probably notice this within my first few chapters but I do turn it into my own words more often after that. I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now._**

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><p><strong><em> 31st October 2005<em>**

** As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late. Harry, Ron and Hermione, however, was not alone in rising much earlier than they usually did at weekends. When they went down to the Entrance Hall, they saw about twenty people around up and eating. Most likely sitting waiting for the foreign students to come along, it was obvious all the girls and boys had already picked their fancy's, it wasn't hard to chose though with Krum and that French Veela girl being here. Though Hermione already knew which one she preferred, although she would go around saying another choice instead, she didn't want to cause attention. **

** "Anyone else awake yet?" Ron asked a third-year girl eagerly. **

** "All the Durmstrung lot" she replied "But I haven't seen any of the girls yet"**

**Ron was more happy to hear about the Durmstrung part then the Beuxbatons lot though, Harry and Hermione knew why that was. He just wanted an autograph from Krum already. **

**"What're we going to do today, then?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione, when they had finished breakfast and were leaving the Great Hall. **

** "We haven't been down to visit Hagrid yet" said Harry. **

** "OK" said Ron "just as long as he doesn't ask us to donate a few fingers to the Skrewts." **

** A look of great excitement dawned on Hermione's face. **

** "I've just realised – I haven't sent a letter back to my parents yet" she said happily, she'd usually be annoyed with herself for forgetting something like this – as they'd probably be worried by now – but the thought of being able to tell them about the upcoming school year was very exciting to her. "Wait for me, will you, while I nip upstairs and write them a quick message." **

** "What's she like?" she faintly heard Ron say in the background, she would've said something back if it weren't for her already running up the marble staircase by then.**

** But, as she was running up the stairs so fast she didn't have a chance to properly look where she was going, and the next thing she knew she knocked into someone, making them and herself fall to the ground. She then heard a familiar French accent saying "Ouch! stupid Ingles' not looking where zey're goin'," but before Hermione could even say she was sorry the French girl had already stormed off, quickly catching up with her friends. Readjusting her blue tear-drop like hat as she did so, and not even giving the 'stupid English person' a second look. She might be pretty but Hermione now knew that looks really aren't everything, that girl is a cow. But before she could start thinking of anything more to add to that thought, she suddenly remembered what she was meant to be doing in the first place and headed back to her Common Room  
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><p><strong> <em>Thank you for reading. Let's see if I can manage to get at least 10 reviews lets say I update within a couple of hours, Yes? :D <em>**


	3. Chapter 3 First Conversation

Thank you again for the reviews, and for getting me to double digits :) All your reviews leave me with a smile on my face so thank you for that and as a reward here's your next chap, which is much longer b.t.w :D

Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story.. I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. But I do make up my own story in this chapter.

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><p><em>3rd November 2005<em>

Double Potions was always a horrible experience, but this day was worse than usual. Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape and the Slytherins was about the most unpleasant thing Hermione could imagine. It was bad enough that she had to spend one Fridays worth, sitting next to Harry, intoning 'Ignore them, ignore them, ignore them' under her breath (Harry never did like Slytherins much). When she and Harry arrived outside Snape's dungeon after lunch, they found the Slytherins waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large badge on the front of his or her robes. They were more surprised to see that some of the Beuxbatons girls were wearing them too.

"Like them, Potter?" said Malfoy loudly, as they both approached "I think you'll like what they do – look!" He pressed his badge into his chest and a bright green message showed up saying:

POTTER STINKS

The Slytherins howled with laughter, even the French girls chuckled too, and they didn't even know Harry. Each of them pressed their badges too, until the message 'POTTER STINKS' was shining brightly all around the both of them. Hermione could tell that Harry's blood was slowly rising, this didn't look good at all.

"Oh very funny" Hermione said sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherins girls, who were laughing harder than anyone "really witty."

Ron was standing against the wall with Dean and Seamus. He wasn't laughing, but he wasn't sticking up for Harry either. But then again she wouldn't have expected him too, seeing as the pair of them had an argument again – only a while ago – causing them to brake up. Hermione just thought it was stupid really, and was surprised when she found out that they still hadn't forgiven each other yet, most likely because their both just as stubborn as each other. She gave up trying after a while and decided to leave them to it.

"Want one, Granger?" said Malfoy, holding out a badge to her. "I've got loads, but don't touch my hand, now, I've just washed it, you see, don't want a Mudblood sliming it up."

She hated when he called her that, it was like a swear word to them, just because Hermione's parents aren't witches or wizards doesn't give him the right to call her such a filthy thing. But then in the corner of her eye, she could see that Harry's anger was finally coming out – she knew this would happen soon, he's always holding in his emotions. And before Harry had even thought of what he was doing he reached for his wand. People all around them scrambled out the way, backing down the corridor.

"Harry!" Hermione said warningly.

"Go on then, Potter" Malfoy said quietly, drawing out his own wand. "Moody's not here to look after you now – do it, if you've got the guts-" For a split second they looked into each other's eyes, then, at exactly the same time, they both acted.

"Furnunculus!" Harry yelled.

"Densaugeo!" screamed Malfoy.

Jets of light shot from both wands; hit each other in mid air, and richoted off at an angle – Harry's hit Goyle in the face, and Malfoy's hit Hermione. Goyle bellowed and put his hand to his nose, where great ugly boils were springing up – Hermione, whimpering in panic, was clutching her mouth.

"Hermione!" Ron had hurried forwards to see what was wrong with her. Hermione felt Ron dragging her hands away from her face, she could tell from his immediate reaction that it wasn't a pretty sight. Hermione then felt her teeth herself, and let out a terrified cry. Her front teeth – already larger than average, though she didn't like to admit this – were now growing at an alarming rate, she was looking more and more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, past her bottom lip, towards her chin. She really did hate magic sometimes.

"And what is all this noise about?" said a soft, deadly voice. Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamoured to give their explanations. Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said "explain."

"Potter attacked me, sir-"

"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry shouted.

"And he hit Goyle – look-" Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi. "Hospital wing, Goyle" Snape said calmly.

"Malfoy got Hermione!" Ron said "look!" He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth – she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherins girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape's back. This just upset her even more. Snape looked coldly at Hermione then said "I see no difference."

This got her as she let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, she turned on her heel and ran, ran all the way up the corridor and out of sight. She was thankful that she could hear Harry and Ron shouting – most likely at Snape – but she was more thankful that no one could make out what they were saying as they'd most likely be put in detention for the year. But she most certainly wasn't thankful at that idiot Malfoy and his clones, winding Harry up like that, now look what they'd gone and done. She just wanted to get to the Hospital wing, and fast.

So fast that she almost didn't see who it was coming her way, almost. But as the corridors weren't as loud as usual (seeing as classes were in progress) she could make out the sound of small heels clinking on the ground. At first she just assumed that it was a Professor, quickly she started to think of excuses she could say to them, until she remembered about her teeth and how they most likely could see why she was out of class anyway. But what she most certainly wasn't expecting was the pretty French girl heading her way instead. She didn't realise it was her until they were almost face to face and she quickly looked up, expecting to see an annoyed Professor. But instead she was met with the most beautiful face she had ever seen, she wanted to call this girl a cow, but then she'd forgotten how perfect she looked. As Hermione was going to quickly run away, before she could see how terrible she looked, the girl started to speak.

"Where are you goin', classes are in progress, non?" she asked her, in the most elegantly soft voice she had ever heard. Hermione wanted to reply but remembering she couldn't, stuck with nodding her head instead.

"Zen, why are we out of classes?" she said, clearly wanting Hermione to say something this time. But she couldn't, so instead just decided to let her teeth give her the answer. Hermione braced herself for the tear-stained laughter she knew she would be hearing any moment, but she waited and didn't get any. Instead she got a massive shocked expression, one that looked like pure worry, not humour. Hermione liked the girl all over again. "Huh! Ma' Cherie, what 'append?" she asked, concern written all over her face.

"Chome idiot in clasch" Hermione answered, keeping her reply short so to make the girl actually understand what she was saying. The French girl didn't look very pleased when she finally figured out what she said. Her face said it all, and it actually made Hermione feel all kinds of tingles inside, knowing that the girl of her dreams was worried about her. Although she did find it slightly odd, considering this was their first actual conversation.

"Oh, no ma' cherie, zis jus' won't do. Come, come zeir must be zome kind of 'ospital, Oui?" she said, looking into Hermione's eyes the entire time. As if she was looking for something, but what? Hermione didn't know, she was just wondering why her belly was getting butterflies all of a sudden. Hermione simply shook her head in reply before saying "yesh, sher Hoshpitalsh wingsh" pointing in the right direction. The French goddess just shook her head in understanding, and then started to lead the way – with the help of Hermione of course.

Once their, the girl made sure that Hermione was in the utmost care, asking the school nurse – Madam Pomfrey – all kinds of questions. Making sure she really knew what she was doing, and that Hermione would get the best treatment possible. She had never felt so much love and care be put into her until that very moment, the fact that the girl was bothering to make sure she was ok at all told Hermione everything. This girl really wasn't a cow, she just comes across that way sometimes, and that maybe – just maybe – she might like her too (as friends of course, anything more than that would be a miracle). After the girl finally realised that the only way to help out Hermione's teeth was for her to drink this medicine, she eventually settled down and decided to let the nurse do what she was good at.

"Just drink this dear, and after a while your teeth should start to go down. When they do just simply tell me when to stop" Madam Pomfrey told Hermione, and then with one last glance at the French girl she left them alone, tending to her next patient – Goyle and his warty face. As her teeth where slowly starting to go back down, neither girl said anything, simply waiting for Hermione's teeth to go back to normal so that she could properly talk again. But that didn't stop Hermione from glancing down at the French girl holding her hand, which she realised she'd been holding right from the moment they started making their way here. Then she noticed that the French girl figured out what Hermione was staring at and started looking at their hands too, and the way they fitted together perfectly. The girl started to gently stoke her hand with her thumb after a while, Hermione realised out of comfort, and it was certainly working, though, as she felt herself relax into the feeling of their skin touching each other. This should have freaked her out, but Hermione decided that she couldn't get freaked out by something that just felt so right, and this – whatever this was – felt completely right. Her teeth were slowly starting to go back to normal, though they were still at her lips, Madam Pomfrey said that it wouldn't be long until they started going back to their rightful position. Hermione was just thankful they were going down at all. That's when it hit her, like a light bulb just went off in her head, the French girl was meant to be heading somewhere too. Hermione couldn't help feeling bad for the girl as she was now being held up here with her, and she probably didn't want to leave because she didn't want to come across as rude, no wonder why she'd been here all this time.

"I'm so sorry, I've only just realised that you were meant to be heading somewhere too, earlier on. And I've been keeping you waiting all this time, when you could have been where you were supposed to be" Hermione said to the girl apologetically.

"Non, do not worry yourzelf ma' cherie, I waz not 'eading anyw'ere important" she explained simply. "Plus I' ave enjoyed our time 'ere togezer, Oui?" Hermione just smiled at her in reply and was thankful when the girl smiled back, her toothy smile – which Hermione couldn't help but love so much. Then as if the girl read her mind, before Hermione could even ask her the girl answered for her.

"Fleur, Je'mappelle Fleur Delacour" Hermione gave a quiet giggle, she loved the way she spoke, she couldn't help but think she sounded much sexier when she spoke in full French. Then Fleur extended her hand out, and it took a moment for Hermione to realise what she was doing until she saw the confused expression on the French girls face.

"Zis is 'ow ze Ingles greet each' ozer, Oui?" Fleur asked, her face completely baffled, Hermione just thought she looked absolutely adorable.

"Yes it is" Hermione told her simply, and to stop her confusion she shook her hand in greeting. Once Hermione's hand touched Fleur's, a bolt of electricity went shooting up her arm, leaving goose bumps in its place.

"Hermione, Je'mappelle Hermione Granger" Hermione said back, but she couldn't stop the shiver that came at the contact of the other girl's smooth hand, and reluctantly let go, thinking it best if they kept their hands far apart for now.

The girls face seemed to drop, though, at the sudden lose of contact, Hermione started to question whether that could mean Fleur liked the touch just as much as she did. But she instantly shook the thought off once she saw the girl start to smile again. The girls then started spending the next 20 minutes talking about anything and everything; Hermione didn't really know how their conversation even started but for some reason it lead to them talking about their family lives. Hermione found out that Fleur had one little sister and they were very close, her sister seemed to sound very protective of Fleur too by the sounds of some of her stories. Then Hermione told Fleur about how she wished she had a little sibling, she was an only child, and that she would get lonely sometimes, seeing as her parents didn't fully understand her anymore. Hermione also found out about France and her school, she found out what Fleur's favourite food was – bouillabaisse, that's why she asked for some earlier, her favourite colour – blue, like their uniforms, and all sorts of other things that she just simply couldn't remember all at once. It's surprising how much you can learn about someone in such a short space of time. But then it seemed that they're little greeting was to be cut short as Madam Pomfrey came over. Hermione almost forgot about her teeth then, she would've ended up with no front teeth had it not been for the nurse quickly rushing over asking Hermione if her teeth were ok to stop now. Hermione let them go down just a bit more than usual, though she wouldn't tell them that, before finally telling Madam Pomfrey to stop.

Once fully happy with her teeth, the two girls were allowed to go, meaning they would have to go their separate ways. Hermione wasn't looking forward to this part at all, she was just getting used to the girls company too. But sometimes 'parting is such sweet sorrow', the girls had to find this out the hard way. As they left the Hospital wing, Fleur and Hermione looked at their timetables to see what lessons they had next, seeing as they would still have half an hour left of class before Lunchtime. Hermione had Herbology, whilst Fleur had Defence against the Dark Arts, Hermione still found it strange that the two schools were in their classes now, she hadn't gotten used to them just yet. But she most certainly was starting to get used to one particular French girl, and Hermione couldn't help thinking she felt the same way too – as she didn't look particularly pleased to be leaving her.

The girls stood their uncomfortably at first, neither one knowing what to do or who should be the one to make the first move. But eventually Fleur stepped up and caught the bushy haired girl by surprise, as she wrapped her up in a warm embrace. Hermione hugged her back just as tightly, and felt herself melting in the girls arms, she was in heaven. Then as quick as it started, Fleur pulled away, and then she leant in and gave Hermione two tender kisses on her cheeks, lingering a bit more than usual.

"Zis is 'ow we greet in France. I prefer' zis version, non?" she asked Hermione, her eyebrow raised. Hermione chuckled at this and nodded her head in reply.

"I prefer it a lot" she said, making the blonde haired girl smile, reaching all the way to her eyes. That toothy grin Hermione loved so much.

"I shall zee you around' ermione Granger" Fleur said, ever so gently. Hermione nodded her head so fast, she must have looked like one of those nodding-head toys, before saying back:

"I shall see you around too, Fleur Delacour" Fleur gave her one last toothy grin, before heading off to her class, and leaving Hermione to walk to hers slightly dazed. Hermione really did love magic sometimes…

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><p>Don't forget to review on your way out hehe :D<p> 


	4. Chapter 4 Jealousy

_I turned this into a three day chapter as it seemed better to make one long chapter than have three short ones, but I mainly did this for you benefits hehe :D _

_So here it is, Enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now._

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><p><em>10th December 2005<em>

"Potter! Weasley! Will you pay attention?"

Professor McGonagall's irritated voice cracked like a whip through the Transfiguration class on Thursday, and Hermione noticed Harry and Ron both jump and look up.

It was the end of the lesson; they had all finished their work; the guinea-fowl they had been changing into guinea-pigs had been shut away in a large cage on the Professor's desk. The bell was due to ring at any moment, and Harry and Ron (who were now becoming bored so decided to have a sword fight with a couple of Fred and George's fake wands at the back of the class) looked up, Ron now holding a tin parrot, and Harry, a rubber haddock. Hermione yet again left them to it.

"Now Potter and Weasley have been kind enough to act their age" said Professor McGonagall, with an angry look at the pair of them as the head of Harry's haddock drooped and fell silently to the floor "I have something to say to you all."

"The Yule Ball is approaching – a traditional part of the Foreign exchange and an opportunity for us to socialise with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth-years and above – although you may invite a younger student if you wish -"

Lavender Brown let out a shrill giggle, Parvati Patil nudged her hard in the ribs, her face working furiously as she, too, fought not to giggle. They both looked around at Harry, 'typical' thought Hermione.

"Dress robes will be worn" Professor McGonagall continued, "and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight, in the Great Hall. Now then -"

Professor McGonagall stared deliberately around the class.

"The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to – err – let our hairs down" she said in disapproving voice.

Lavender giggled harder than ever, with her hand pressed hard against her mouth to stifle the sound. Hermione could see what was funny this time; Professor McGonagall, with her hair in a tight bun, looked as though she had never let her hair down in any sense.

"But that does NOT mean that we will be relaxing the standards of behaviour we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way."

The bell rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and had swung them onto their shoulders.

Hermione had never known so many people to put their names down to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas; she hardly ever did, of course, as she would always go back home for the holidays – or stay at the Weasley's. This year, however, everyone in the fourth year and above seemed to be staying, and they all seemed to Hermione to be obsessed with the coming ball – or, at least, all the girls were, except for her she didn't really seem to find it as fascinating as the girls did. Hermione could tell though that Harry and Ron were struggling with this whole asking-a-girl-out then anyone, but she couldn't quite figure out how Harry couldn't find a date yet, he is the supposedly 'chosen one'.

Hermione, however, couldn't stop the thought of who Fleur might end up going with, and for a second, considered if she might go with her. But Hermione ignored that thought, not believing that that could happen.

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><p><em>17th December 2005<em>

The last week of term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumours about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, though Hermione didn't believe half of them – for instance, that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta. It seemed to be fact, however, that he had booked the Weird Sisters, Hermione found it quite funny that Harry didn't have a clue who they were, so she had to tell him all about them.

She found that some of the teachers, like Professor Flitwick, gave up trying to teach them much when their minds were so clearly elsewhere; he allowed them to play games in his lesson on Wednesday, but Hermione spent most of it catching up with her books instead. Other teachers were not so generous. Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from ploughing on through his notes on goblin rebellions – as Binns hadn't let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, they supposed a small thing like Christmas wasn't going to put him off. Professors McGonagall and Moody kept them working until the very last second of their classes, too, and Snape, of course, would no sooner let them play games in classes than adopt Harry. Staring nastily around at them all, he informed them that he would be testing them on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.

"Evil, he is" Ron said bitterly that night in the Gryffindor common room "springing a test on us on the last day. Ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of revision."

"Mmm… you're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" asked Hermione, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes. Ron was busy building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack – a much more interesting pastime than with Muggle cards, because of the chance that the whole thing would blow up at any second.

"It's Christmas, Hermione" said Harry lazily; he was re-reading Flying with the Cannons for the tenth time in the armchair near the fire.

Hermione looked severely over at him, too. "I'd have thought you'd be doing something constructive, Harry, even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!"

"Like what?" Harry said.

"Erm… I don't know, maybe actually saying yes to a girl who asks you to the ball next time" she said back, lamely.

"Yeah, well it's not my fault you girls travel around in packs, is it? It's like your telling us not to even bother" he told her back, stubbornly. Hermione rolled her eyes at this; guys will just never be able to understand girls.

"We should get a move on, you know… ask someone. She's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls." Ron said to Harry.

Hermione let out a splutter of indignation. "A pair of… what, excuse me?"

"Well – you know" said Ron, shrugging, "I'd rather go alone than with – with Eloise Midgen, say."

"Her acne's loads better lately – and she's really nice!"

"Her nose is off-centre" said Ron.

"Oh, I see" Hermione said, bristling "so basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"

"Err – yeah, that sounds about right" said Ron.

"I'm going to bed" Hermione snapped, and she swept off towards the girl's staircase without another word.

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><p><em>18th December 2005<em>

The Hogwarts staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress the visitors from Beuxbatons and Durmstrung, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas. When the decorations went up, Hermione noticed that they were the most stunning she had yet seen inside the school. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from the luminous holly berries, to real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armour had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed them. It was quite something to hear 'Oh Come, All ye Faithful' sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words. Several times, Filch the caretaker had to extract Peeves from inside the armour, where he had taken to hiding, filling in the gaps in the songs with lyrics of his own invention, all of which were very rude.

And still the boys had yet to ask anyone to go to the ball with them; she noticed that Harry and Ron were starting to get very nervous now. But then again Hermione had yet to be asked – by anyone decent that is, she didn't want to go with a complete idiot – to the ball, and decided from here on out that she'd say yes to the next person to ask her, whomever that maybe. She still kept wondering about Fleur, that girl was never far from her mind – in fact she was so in her mind, she could hardly ever stop thinking about her anymore. Hermione hadn't spoken to Fleur since their last encounter at the Hospital, she'd seen her around but never got the chance to speak to her seeing as she was always surrounded by her friends (who always gave evils to anyone who looked at them, and wasn't from their school). She now understood what the boys meant about girls hanging around in packs.

"I suppose there's always Moaning Myrtle" said Harry gloomily, referring to the ghost who haunted the girl's toilets on the second floor.

"Harry – we've just got to grit our teeth and do it" said Ron on Friday morning. "When we get back to the common room tonight, we'll both have partners – agreed?"

"Err… Ok" said Harry, Hermione just chuckled at their strange behaviour, when the bell rang, everyone quickly grabbed their bags, and hurried to the dungeon door – Harry was strangely quicker than most.

"I'll meet you at dinner" Harry said to Ron and Hermione, and he dashed off upstairs.

Ron and Hermione just looked at each other, and then shrugged.

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><p>Hermione didn't see the boys for the remainder of the day, most likely because once lesson was over – and Harry left them suspiciously – Hermione left Ron and headed straight to the library. The only difference this time being that she didn't have a particular reason to go, she just felt like it.<p>

Although she had been trying to stop herself from going there (because a certain famous Quidditch player seemed to always be in the library lately) she found that being away for a day was long enough. When she got there, she felt a certain joy of being surrounded by books again, like she was meant to be here all the time. She hated leaving the place sometimes; it was like her get-away from everything Hogwarts and from the boys too. Love them as she might, they did get on her last nerve sometimes, and found that she couldn't stand being near them for a certain amount of time – but this was only when they started talking about guy-stuff, something's a girl just doesn't want to hear. And so as she looked up Hogwarts: A History again, for the millionth time, she felt herself relax and smile at the feeling of reading a book again. She was home.

That was until she got disturbed by someone purposely coughing. She felt sudden rage fill her, and she felt her blood start to boil 'how dare someone interrupt her, when she was clearly in the middle of something' she thought. Just as she was about to say this to the person out loud, she looked up and saw that the person in front of her was none other than Viktor Krum.

"Oh, erm… hello, can I help you with something?" she found herself saying. This was very confusing for her as she'd hardly even said 'hi' to Viktor before, so immediately assumed that he needed help.

"Ves, you zee I vould like to azk vis person out, mozt likely to ve ball, but vi doesn't know 'ow" he said to her nervously. She found this very odd as she'd hardly expect a guy like him to ever get nervous around a girl.

"Erm, OK. Well have you ever considered just asking her to her face, its always better to get her on her own – you know – away from all the giggling girls" she told him, looking to the girls behind him as she did so.

"Vell, she iz alone now" he said.

"Great! Well there you go then, just go right up to her and ask her. I'm sure she'd say yes – I mean why would she say no" Hermione said back. Viktor looked shocked at her last comment, that started to get her worried, and she instantly regretted what she said. Maybe she had offended him, in some way.

"Ok ven… vould you like to go to ve ball wiv me?" he asked.

"Yeah, exactly, just like that – see wasn't so hard was it?" she asked him rhetorically, not quite getting what he said.

"No, I vas not – err… how to put vis… vould YOU" he said, pointing to Hermione before continuing "like to go to ve ball wiv ME?" he asked again, pointing to himself afterwards. It took a second but, eventually, Hermione got it.

"Oh, you were talking about me?" she asked, and he just nodded in reply. "Well – err – I… don't, know" she said slowly, trying to figure out whether she should say yes or not. She did promise herself that she would say yes to the next person, but she certainly didn't expect that to be Viktor Krum – she just assumed Neville would ask her again, after being rejected once more. She saw his face instantly fall, when she said she wasn't sure, and a part of her did feel sorry. But then she also had this inkling of a feeling telling her that if she did say yes, she would be hurting someone very important to her, and she had a feeling she knew who that person would be. But then again why would she be hurting her, she hadn't spoken to the French beauty in 2 months, she hardly doubted that the girl would want to go to the ball with her either. So after a few more moments of silently battling herself inside, she made up her mind.

"Yes" she said, "Yes I'd love too"

Viktor instantly smiled, his smile reaching his eyes – though Hermione couldn't help comparing it to Fleur's, it was nothing like Fleur's. She smiled back, though it did not reach her eyes, and gave him a quick hug. It was awkward at first, as she caught him by surprise, but he hugged her back, eventually. Very tightly too, she found that she didn't melt into it like she had with Fleur, they didn't fit, like her and Fleur did – but she grinned and bared it all the same. At least now she had a date, she found herself thinking.

Viktor left once he found out that Hermione was in no rush to leave, she was thankful for that at least. But then once he left, Hermione had a feeling that someone was listening, and not just the followers of Krum. She quickly looked to her left and saw a flash of blue disappear into the distance; she thought she was just imagining it until she heard a book fall too. Someone else was listening, but she doubted it was who she thought it might be. She just left the thought to her and her strange brain before deciding to go back to the Gryffindor common room.

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><p>Hermione entered the common room to the usual chatter between Harry and Ron and she found Ginny was there too.<p>

"Why weren't you two at dinner?" she said, coming over to join them.

"Because – oh, shut up laughing, you two – because they've both just been turned down by girls they asked to the ball" said Ginny.

That shut Harry and Ron up.

"Thanks a bunch, Ginny" said Ron sourly.

"All the good-looking ones taken, Ron?" said Hermione loftily. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who'll have you."

But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new light. "Hermione, Neville's right – you are a girl…"

"Oh, well spotted" she said acidly.

"Well – you can come with one of us!"

"No, I can't," snapped Hermione, now blushing, "because I'm already going with someone."

"Come of it" said Ron. "You just said that to get rid of Neville!"

"Oh did I?" said Hermione, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else had spotted I'm a girl!"

Ron stared at her, and then he grinned again.

"OK, OK, we know you're a girl" he said, "That do? Will you come now?"

"I've already told you!" Hermione said, very angrily. "I'm going with someone else!"

And she stormed off towards the girl's dormitories again. She just about had enough of Ron, he just didn't understand, like she didn't have enough on her plate already.


	5. Chapter 5 What's up with her?

_Apologies for the long wait, but I'm afraid I won't be able to upload as frequently as I used to, but I promise I'll try to update as soon as I can. Anyways here is the next update, I know it's not very long but its because the next one will be much longer… so Enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

** _23rd December 2005_**

Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beuxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid's cabin, while the Durmstrung ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost. Though Hermione hated to admit it, but even she couldn't say that the house-elves down in the kitchen weren't outdoing themselves, with a series of rich, warming stews and savoury puddings. It seemed only Fleur Delacour seemed to be able to find anything to complain about.

"It is too 'eavy, all zis 'Ogwarts food" they heard her saying grumpily, as they left the Great Hall behind her one evening (Ron seemed to be skulking behind Harry, keen not to be spotted by Fleur). "I will not fit into my dress robes!"

It seemed to her that Fleur had become a lot more snobbish lately, it was starting to get a bit irritating, and she thought she'd never hear herself say such a thing about Fleur. So much so that it was even starting to put her off the girl again, but then again she had every right to be as they still hadn't spoken to each other. It seemed every time she tried too, it wasn't just her friends that sneered at her, but Fleur too. She just had no idea what came into her lately, and she most certainly didn't want to find out, if she was going to act this way.

"Oooh, there's a tragedy" said Hermione snappily, as Fleur went out into the Entrance Hall – not even giving her a second glance, _again_, "she really thinks a lot of herself, that one, doesn't she?"

"Hermione – who are you going to the ball with?" said Ron.

He kept springing this question on her, hoping to startle her into a response by asking it when she least expected it. However, Hermione merely frowned and said, "I'm not telling you, you'll just make fun of me."

"You're joking, Weasley?" said Malfoy, behind them. "You're not telling me someone's asked _that_ to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?"

Harry and Ron both whipped around, but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Malfoy's shoulder "hello, Professor Moody!"

Malfoy went pale and jumped backwards, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.

"Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" Said Hermione scathingly, and she, Harry and Ron went up the marble-staircase laughing heartily.

"Hermione" said Ron, looking sideways at her, suddenly frowning "your teeth…"

"What about them?" she said.

"Well, they're different… I've just noticed…"

"Of course they are – did you expect me to keep those fangs Malfoy gave me?"

"No, I mean, they're different to how they were before he put that hex on you… they're all… straight and – and normal sized."

Hermione suddenly smiled very mischievously and she could tell that Harry was starting to notice it too.

"Well… when I went up to Madam Pomfrey to get them shrunk, she held up a mirror, and told me to stop her when they where back to how they normally were" she said, though she made sure to not add the part with Fleur, she hadn't gotten around to telling them about her yet. "And I just… let her carry on a bit" she smiled even more widely; remembering the day like it was yesterday. "Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my brace. You know, they're dentists, they just don't think teeth and magic should – look! Pig-widgeon's back!"

Ron's tiny owl was twittering madly on the top icicle-laden banisters, a scroll of parchment tied to his leg. People passing them were pointing and laughing, and a group of third-year girls paused and said "Oh, look at the weenie owl! Isn't he _cute_?"

"Stupid little feathery git" Ron hissed, hurrying up the stairs and snatching Pig-widgeon up. "You bring letters straight to the addressee! You don't hang around showing off!"

Pig-widgeon hooted happily, his head protruding over Ron's fist. The third-year girls all looked very shocked.

"Clear off!" Ron snapped at them, waving the fist holding Pig who hooted more happily than ever as he soared through the air. "Here – take it, Harry" Ron added in an undertone, as the third-year girls scuttled away looking scandalised. Harry pulled Sirius' reply off Pig's leg, he pocketed it, and they quickly hurried back to the Gryffindor tower to read it.

_Well what do you think? Was it good? If not then you can always tell me, I don't mind criticism :D And what do you think is going to happen next… I love to read what you lot have to say __:)_****


	6. Chapter 6 The Yule Ball

_Thank you for your reviews and story alerts, they are all much appreciated :)) Now here's the next chapter, the Yule Ball. Enjoy! _

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><strong><em>25th December 2005<em>**

Hermione awoke on Christmas Day, to the sound of rustling's and laughter. The other girls were already awake, and clearly opening their presents, the first chance they got. Yet again she awoke very unhappy, she hated being woken up, she enjoyed her sleep a lot. But once she withdrew the curtains on her bed, and saw the girls smiling faces – some even teary eyed – she just couldn't stay mad at them for long, after all it is Christmas, so they have an excuse.

She smiled even more when Ginny came over with a present for her, she then quickly remembered Ginny's present and leant to the edge of her bed and picked up a small, simple present and they then exchanged gifts – each looking just as excited as the other.

Hermione was in no rush - unlike the others who were ripping their wrappings to shreds - so she slowly unwrapped each of her presents, enjoying the excitement that bubbled up inside her at the thought of what she might find behind the papers. Her parents gave her a typical new Christmas jumper, and a new book that she'd been begging them for months to get her. Harry got her _Hogwarts: A History_, which after she thought about it made sense seeing as she did always refer to the book – but only because she had read it that many times – but she was thankful for it anyway. At least it was better than Ron's present, he got her a miniature teddy of Pig-widgeon, which she did think was cute and would have loved it had it not been for the missing eye, which kind-of made it look scary. Ginny got her a vast box of all her favourite sweets, which she thanked her for and the two started on them straight away. Then just when she had thought she opened all her presents, Ginny presented her with another, much smaller present. It was wrapped up beautifully, with a blue ribbon tied all around it.

"Thanks Ginny – but you didn't have to get me another one" she said to her kindly. Ginny just laughed back before saying:

"It isn't from me, numpty, do you really think I wrap like that. No, from the looks of it, this ones from someone special" Ginny said, giving Hermione a small wink before leaving her to it.

This just made Hermione even more excited as it seemed she got a present from a secret admirer, she just hoped that it wasn't from Viktor. The present felt like a long, thin, slender box – she had an idea of what might be inside it, but wanted to take a few more guesses first – then she spotted it. A small elegant handwriting was written on the paper and once she read it she immediately knew who it was from.

_'Ermione_

Hermione had never been so excited in her life, her belly was going crazy, as was her hands by the looks of it as they were suddenly ripping open the present, though she made sure to not rip the part with her name on it. Once all the wrapping was thrown on the floor, she was left with a blue box, just like she thought it would be. She slowly, but surely, opened it and gasped. Inside the box was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen in her life… It was real pearls, joined together by small dots of diamonds, and right in the very middle hung a small purple crystal. Her favourite colour, 'she remembered' Hermione thought. She started to gently stroke the necklace, scared to properly touch it, in case it somehow broke – even though this was hardly going to happen, considering it was all very authentic. Then the next thing she knew, tears were filling her eyes, and making their way down her cheeks, it was the best present she had ever been given, and probably the best one she'd ever get too. Just when she thought the girl was fading from her, she went and did something like this; she really couldn't hate this girl for long.

Once she saw the tears, Ginny came rushing to her side, worried it was some kind-of prank present from Malfoy or something. But when she too looked at the elegant pearl necklace, the questions came pouring out of her.

"Who was it from? Why had they given her it? Is it from someone special?" but once she figured out that Hermione really wasn't going to tell her anything she shut up, and both girls resumed at staring at the necklace. Touching it every now and then to make sure it was actually real, and it wasn't long before Ginny joined in with the tears too.

* * *

><p>All four of them went out into the grounds in the afternoon; the snow was untouched except for the deep channels made by the Durmstrung and Beuxbatons students on their way up to the castle. Hermione chose to watch Harry and the Weasley's snowball fight rather than join in, and at five o'clock said she was going back upstairs to get ready for the ball.<p>

"What, do you really need three hours?" said Ron, looking at her incredulously, and paying his lapse in concentration when a large snowball, thrown by George, hit him hard on the side of his head. "Who're you going with?" he yelled after Hermione, but she just waved, and disappeared up the stone steps into the castle. It was time for her to get ready, and she most certainly needed three hours.

* * *

><p>Hermione's hair was no longer bushy; it was sleek and shiny, and twisted up into an elegant knot at the back of her head. She was wearing robes made of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material, with her precious pearl necklace wrapped around her neck. She looked perfect, or so Ginny kept saying.<p>

It was time… and after constantly asking Ginny if she really did look ok, or if the necklace was too much – to which Ginny simply replied 'yes' and 'of course not' – she made her way to the Entrance Hall, like everybody else. She still couldn't quite believe that her date was Viktor Krum, and her beautiful necklace was from Fleur Delacour, she really did feel like a lucky woman at that moment.

She hesitated at first – she was at the top of the stairs, and it seemed that her feet weren't ready for her to come down yet as she didn't seem to be moving. But after finally managing to get her legs together she made her way down. She didn't want to admit it, but she felt like a princess, she never thought she'd have a moment like this. As she was making her way slowly down the steps she saw a few heads turn, right at the bottom of the stairs were Harry and Parvati (who Hermione guessed must be his date) and she felt her smile grow when she saw Parvati saying something like "she looks beautiful" making Harry turn around to see who she was talking about. When he did she noticed his jaw drop, if he didn't see her as a girl before, he was certainly realising it now. She could also see Viktor, making his way, slowly, to the stairs, his big beaming smile on his face again. He looked very sensible in his fine, red suit, with a fur coat on top.

Hermione wanted to be looking at him, she really did, but her eyes weren't listening to her head, and she found herself looking at a certain blonde haired lady instead.

'Now _she_ truly looks beautiful, like a heavenly angel' Hermione thought to herself, her eyes remaining focused on the blonde. Fleur Delacour was passing, looking stunning in robes of silvery-grey satin, and accompanied by the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, Roger Davies. But Hermione noticed that as she was making her way down, Fleur's head seemed to have turned in her direction too, and her eyes found Fleur's instantly, they remained their too as Hermione never wanted to look anywhere else but in those perfect blue eyes. Fleur really was the definition of beautiful, and it seemed that Fleur was thinking the exact same thing – but about her instead. Her eyes never left Hermione's, and she was pretty sure she saw her check her out too, but she definitely knew when Fleur saw the necklace, because her face burst into a thousand watt smile… the toothy smile that Hermione loved so much.

Hermione was so distracted – from staring at a French veela – that she almost missed the last step. Luckily for her Viktor was there waiting, and instantly took her hand and gave her a tender kiss on it, she wanted to enjoy it but she couldn't help but still look at Fleur. Especially Fleur and her date, when she saw Fleur smiling with him instead she felt something unfamiliar surge through her; jealousy. But then she realised that Fleur instantly looked away when Hermione joined Viktor, and that toothy smile was no longer on her face, instead it was replaced with – what Hermione could only call – a fake smile… it didn't reach her eyes. Maybe she was feeling the exact same thing, but she didn't have long to fully question this, as she was starting to get dragged away by Viktor (who she could tell, had now noticed that she wasn't staring at him anymore).

Once the doors to the Grand Hall were finally open, everyone started to slowly bustle in. The walls of the hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The house tables had vanished; instead there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.

Viktor was leading her, elegantly, to their table, his head held high, with a smile on his face – like as if he couldn't have been happier with his date. She wished she could feel the same way, but after seeing Fleur and how perfect she looked, nothing could top that. Definitely not the horrible robes Ron seemed to have on, and he looked just as shocked as everyone else to see her with Viktor Krum, he made this particularly obvious by having his jaw wide open the whole time they walked past. She was guessing that Ron's date was Parvati's twin Padma, but she didn't look too thrilled with Ron, she looked more like she was sulking.

Once they had found their table (which Hermione wasn't too thrilled about when she found out that they were sharing it with Fleur and Roger, but she was happy that Harry and Parvati, Cedric and Cho were also sharing it too) Viktor acted like a kind gentleman holding her chair out for her, before he sat down too. Harry wasn't going to do this, until he saw Viktor and Cedric do it, so thought it best to be like a gentleman too – though he pulled her chair a bit too far back, making Parvati almost fall straight on the floor, had he not caught her in time. Then Fleur came along, not even acknowledging Hermione and Krum, and sat down straight away, leaving Roger standing by her chair confused before sitting down too.

Hermione saw Harry get into conversation with Ron's older brother Percy (who strangely enough was sitting at the staff table, nearest to Harry) and everyone else started talking too, so she started to speak to Viktor as well. There was no food as yet on the glittering golden plates, but small menus lying in front of each of them. Hermione picked hers up uncertainly, and looked around – there were no waiters. Dumbledore, however, looked carefully down his own menu, then said very clearly to his plate, "Pork chops!"

And Pork chops appeared; getting the idea, the rest of the table placed their orders with their plates, too. She would have started another complaint, too, about this new ordering system, but was too involved with the conversation at hand to notice. They weren't talking about anything special, just about his school really, well that was until he got stopped by a suspicious looking Karkaroff. He didn't seem too thrilled with Viktor telling someone all about his school, but it seemed she wasn't the only one who thought this as Dumbledore started to question him too. This just lead those two to have a little argument about their school's, so Hermione zoned out of that conversation, and started listening to Fleur's instead - although she only seemed to be criticising the Hogwarts decorations to Roger Davies.

"Zis is nothing" she said dismissively, looking around at the sparkling walls of the Great Hall "at ze Palace of Beuxbatons, we 'ave ice sculptures all around ze Dining Chamber at Chreestmas. Zey do not melt, of course… zey are like 'uge statues of diamond, glittering around ze place." But Hermione found that as she said this, her eyes seemed to be looking at the pearl necklace she had given her for Christmas. Did Fleur know that she was listening? Is that why she's talking about her school, maybe that's where she got the idea of the necklace from? It seemed that way by the way she was staring at it, like there was a twinkle in her eyes, and the tip of her lips seemed to go up. But then she shook it off and continued "and ze food is seemply superb, and we 'ave choirs of wood-nymphs, 'oo serenade us as we eat, we 'ave none of zis ugly armour in ze 'alls, and eef a poltergeist ever entered into Beuxbatons, 'e would be expelled like_ zat_." She slapped her hand onto the table impatiently.

Roger Davies was watching her talk with a very dazed look on his face and he kept missing his mouth with his fork. Hermione had the impression that Davies was too busy staring at Fleur to take in a word she was saying. Hermione found that she couldn't help but come up with rude names for him in her head, glaring at him as she did so.

"Absolutely right" he said quickly, slapping his own hand down on the table in imitation of Fleur "like _that_, yeah."

After a while of listening, and trying not to lose her anger with some of the things Fleur was saying about Hogwarts, she decided to pay attention to Krum again – who was actually talking away the entire time. Hermione then found herself teaching him how to actually punctuate her name; he kept calling her 'Hermy-own'.

"Her – my – oh – nee" she said, slowly and clearly.

"Herm – own – ninny" she thought she heard someone snort, at this, and quickly turned to see Fleur shaking her head in disapproval – it seemed she was the one listening to their conversation now.

"Close enough" Hermione said, catching Harry's eye and grinning.

* * *

><p>When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, at a wave of his wand, the tables zoomed back along the walls, leaving the floor clear, and then conjured a raised platform into existence along the right-hand wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello and some bagpipes were set upon it.<p>

The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy, and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. They picked up their instruments and started playing a slow tune.

Then Dumbledore walked over to their table and encouraged them all to get up and dance, so Viktor took her by the hand and lead the way to the dance floor. She was glad that she took extra dance class when she was young, otherwise she wouldn't know a single thing, as they all started to do the waltz. Well Harry at least attempted, though by the looks of Parvati, not succeeding well. Fleur was flawless, she found that she was staring at the girl, every time she elegantly floated their way, her and Roger were perfect – though it almost killed her to say it. Every twist and turn, Hermione's eyes would find themselves locked onto Fleur's, they stared into each others eyes for so long, at one point that she could've sworn she was practically dancing with her. But then Krum would bring her back down to earth by turning her the other way, making her look at him instead… she would just grin and bare it, like usual.

She could see Neville and Ginny dancing nearby – she could also see Ginny wincing frequently as Neville trod on her feet. Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime, he was so dwarfed by her that the top of his pointy hat barely tickled her chin; however, she moved very gracefully for a woman so large – Hermione thought that maybe it was a French thing, to be able to dance so well.

Hermione heard the final, quivering note from the bagpipe with relief. The Weird Sisters stopped playing; applause filled the hall once more, before the Weird Sisters struck up a new song, which was much faster. Hermione expected Viktor to make them sit down, but was surprised to find that he was still up and dancing, making her dance with him instead. They danced all the way through the song, which felt like a lifetime to Hermione; it seemed that the band weren't going to stop there, though, for as soon as the song ended another one began.

This one being a fast beat too. Hermione was going to stop until she saw everyone around her start to huddle together and started jumping up and down like crazy, so much so that she soon found that she was joining in too. Hermione, dancing in the middle of the crowd with a big smile on her face, was laughing and giggling away with Viktor – every time he started doing one of his goofy dance moves Hermione just had to crack a smile – soon found that she had bumped into someone from behind. But as she kept moving she felt that the person behind was turned around too, so she started dancing back to back with a random person, although she had an inkling of feeling that the warm back pressed up against hers felt familiar and the touch gave her an all too recognizable feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Hermione knew that just had to be sure, she didn't mind playfully dancing with a stranger, but if the stranger turned out to be who she thought it was... Hermione just had to be sure. So she did the first thing that sprang to mind, and spun around. She seemed to have done this so quickly and unexpectedly that the person behind her stumbled a bit, from where she had been leaning on her. And now that Hermione had turned around she could safely say that it was a she, but not just any she, it was _the_ she_, the _Fleur Delacour. Hermione instantly gasped when she realised this, and prayed that the vela wouldn't turn around, but then again she wasn't turning around either.

Hermione seemed to be paralysed, she just couldn't move, all she could do was just stare at the all too familiar back, and the all too familiar dress, and the all too familiar hair, all of it was just screaming out Fleur. And yet, she did nothing.

That was until Fleur decided to turn around too, and acknowledged the person she was just dancing with back to back. Hermione couldn't help but notice that in the 15 seconds it took for the Veela to turn around and recognise her; there was only one part of it all that shocked her the most. It wasn't the fact that Fleur was turning around in the first place, it wasn't the fact that as she did so Hermione's world seemed to have slowed down by one hundred percent, making the French girl turn extra slow, every movement catching her eyes. It wasn't the fact that when Fleur turned around her hair seemed to have spun around just as elegantly as she did, and crashed onto her neck before landing on her shoulders, just like they did in movies. It wasn't the fact that Fleur's eyes connected with hers almost too instantly.

It wasn't any of these thing, it was the simple fact that Fleur grinned that knowing grin, a grin Hermione hadn't seen before, as soon as realisation kicked in, that uneasy grin was what shocked Hermione the most. Why was she even grinning? Not a gasp in sight. This knowing smirk only lead Hermione to believe that Fleur must have known she was dancing with her all along, that maybe she bumped into her on purpose. The only question on Hermione's mind now was, why?

It didn't take long for her to get her answer though, as Fleur all of a sudden started to move in closer to her. Fleur's oh so distant face now seemed to be so close up that Hermione could see every part of her. Every crinkle, every freckle, everything, she could see it all. She wanted to reach out and touch the softness of her cheeks, feel the roundness of her lips, she wanted to do all that and much more, and yet Hermione still couldn't move. She was just too hypnotised, but the worst thing was Fleur knew this too. So why wasn't she taking this to her advantage?

Hermione could smell that luscious perfume of hers, and she could practically feel every breath the girl made on her face, they were that close and yet neither girl decided to make the first move. And Hermione thought that maybe neither of them would too. Was she really just going to let this opportunity pass her by?

Then suddenly, as if the fates weren't pushing them forwards enough, the song stopped, and the band started to slow the tune down a bit to a more slow beat instead. The first and only move Hermione could make was the slow shaking of her head, looking down as she did so, 'typical' the younger girl thought. That was when Hermione decided that, for now, enough was enough, she didn't see the harm in at least dancing with the French beauty, she wasn't going to let this pass her by. She'd kill herself if she did.

Hermione slowly lifted her head up, her eyes re-connecting with Fleur's all over again, Hermione's breath hitched when she felt the intensity of the other girls stare, her face blushed. Hermione decided to be brave.

"C-care for a dance?" She asked, scared of what the answer would be Hermione looked away. But she offered her hand to the girl anyway.

"Certainly" Fleur finally replied, taking Hermione's hand into hers, both sharing the same goofy-looking smile, like they had just conquered Mount Everest.

Hermione thinking she'd be the one to lead, ended up being the one following instead, as Fleur spun her around into her welcoming arms. Every twist and every turn was perfection, Hermione thought Fleur danced well with Roger; well she was clearly mistaken as it seemed that the girl's natural dance partner was her. Both of them, in each other's arms were perfection, dancing to the rhythm of the beat, never making a single mistake, spinning and twirling they danced with ease and grace. Their eyes never leaving each other's the whole time, neither did the smiles. And then just as the girls started to picture themselves in their own little ballroom, no one there besides them, on the next spin of the giggling younger girl they found that there dance was to be cut short.

The next thing Hermione knows is instead of going back into the arms of her French Veela, she ended up crashing into a hard rough chest. Her hand falling into the ones of Viktor Krum, Hermione's date, _her date_, the one she was supposed to be dancing with all along. She was back in the arms of the person she was always 'supposed' to be in. Not the ones that she so longed for, not the ones that she dreamed about each night. She was back to square one, and by the way Viktor held onto her hands, it seemed she was going to be staying there too. Hermione no longer had that goofy-looking smile.

Hermione danced some more with Viktor, each song passing by starting to get louder and more up-beat, Hermione felt she was dancing the night away, with Viktor. Although deep-down Hermione longed for the touch of the Veela again, she found that she was still having a laugh with her date anyway. She was still laughing at every silly move he did, trying to impress her and once the song stopped Hermione kindly asked Krum if he could get her a drink. She was feeling very de-hydrated all of a sudden.

Hermione saw Ron and Harry sitting down at a random table, so decided to join them for a while. She was a bit pink in the face from dancing.

"Hi" said Harry, Ron was going to answer until Fleur came along. She gave them all a once over, before deciding to join them too, and sat opposite them.

"It's hot, isn't it?" said Hermione, fanning herself with her hand. "Viktor's just gone to get some drinks."

Fleur gave her a withering look.

"_Viktor_?" she said "'azn't 'e asked you to call 'im _Vicky_ yet?"

Hermione looked at her in surprise.

"What's up with you?" she said.

"Eef you don't know" said Fleur scathingly "I'm not goin' to tell you."

Hermione stared at her, then at Harry and Ron, who both shrugged, "Fleur, what -?"

"I saw 'im, all over you in ze Library, no wonder you zaid yez" Fleur spat out angrily.

"He was not _'all over me'_, he just merely asked me if I wanted to go to the ball with him, and of course I was going to say yes! What's it to you anyway?" Hermione asked spitefully.

"Et iz every zing to do wiz me!" she shouted back. This caught her by surprise, so much so that Hermione was now starting to get teary-eyed, but she made herself not let them fall, not in front of her anyway.

"So what, just because we had one little moment in the Hospital Wing that makes me yours does it?" she shouted back.

"Non, of course not, I juzt did not expect you to zay yez!" she exclaimed. "Why do you zink I gave you zat necklace, huh?" she was now pointing at the pearls on Hermione's neck.

"FINE! If it means that, bloody, much to you, then you can have it!" Hermione bellowed back. Quickly undoing the necklace, still scared of breaking them, before forcefully throwing it at Fleur – who looked like she was on the verge of tears. People were starting to stare at them.

"You better go find you preciouz Vicky, he'll be wonderin' where you are" she said back viscously.

"_Don't call him Vicky!_" Hermione jumped to her feet, and stormed off to the Entrance Hall, disappearing in the crowd. As she made her way up to the common room she couldn't help feeling like something was missing, a slight coldness was now filling the space on her empty neck. 'Fleur ruined everything' she thought to herself.

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><p><em>Well there it is, the chapter you've been waiting for, I hope I've written it OK, but then again this is how i always imagined it being in my head. Let's see if I can get another ten reviews 'ay, I know it'll make a certain person very happy hehe :D <em>


	7. Chapter 7 Yule Ball  After effect

_Hey, I know its been a long time and i am very sorry for that, but having no internet is a bit of a bummer – but i promise i'll try to update as often as i can :D Now for this chapter i know its short – like really short – and don't hate me for it. I've done it for a reason, so the next one can be longer __:) And now that the rambling is done... Enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><em> 26th December 2005<em>

Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations. Hermione's hair was bushy again; she confessed to Harry and Ron that she had used liberal amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it for the ball.

"But it's way too much bother to do everyday" she said matter-of-factly, scratching a purring Crookshanks behind the ears.

After having enough of Ron and Harry's – even Ginny's – constant begging for her to explain what that was last night between her and Fleur, Hermione finally gave in and filled them in on everything. She told them everything she knew about Fleur, and how she felt about the French witch, never leaving anything out (much to the annoyance of Ron, who she figured was jealous at the fact that she got to hug her instead). Afterwards Hermione felt like a massive weight had been lifted, she'd needed to tell someone about this a long time ago, and it killed her not to have told her best friends. At first she thought they would all hate her, for some strange reason, once they found out that she liked a girl, but it turns out they were more annoyed that she hadn't told any of them about Fleur then her actually liking the girl. It seemed Ginny was annoyed the most – seeing as the girls usually tell each other everything – but she came around when Hermione re-told her the story of her and Fleur in the Hospital Wing, Hermione definitely didn't mind telling this memory again.

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><p>It seemed to Hermione, that no matter how much she tried, Fleur just simply wouldn't even look at her now. Hermione spent the whole day trying to speak to the girl, even get a smile from her, but nothing. It was like she was choosing to completely ignore her, or even pretend that she didn't even know her at all, and this hurt Hermione more than anything. So much so that she spent the remainder of the day crying her eyes out to Ginny, she was just thankful the girl let her cry on her shoulders and didn't get her to explain everything – she didn't think she could, even if she wanted too.<p>

After hours of crying, and sulking, Hermione finally stopped (mainly because she simply had no more tears to cry). She stopped crying and decided that she'd never waste any more of her time crying for that French cow ever again. She decided that if Fleur wasn't going to talk to her, then she wasn't going to talk to Fleur either – it may seem childish, but if that's what Fleur was aiming for then Hermione was happy to go along with it. She was finally fed up of having her heart broken, and not being able to do anything about it. This time she was going to do something about it, even if it meant never seeing her again.

Ginny wasn't quite as keen as Hermione had expected at first, but eventually Ginny just decided to go along with it – she knew Hermione too well to know that if she really set her mind on something there was no way to get her to change it, so she just smiled and nodded instead. The two witches spent the rest of the night coming up with names for the French Veela, once Hermione realised that saying her name was just too painful. Eventually the girls settled for one Ginny came up with, Phlegm; seeing as this got Hermione laughing the most.

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><p><em>Remember reviews make me smile :D and a smiling writer is a happy writer, and that makes happy readers too – a whole chain of happiness hehe :)<em>****


	8. Chapter 8 Valentines Day

_Here's the next instalment... Enjoy! _

_ Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><em>13th February 2006<em>

Tomorrow was Valentine's Day, and Hermione was dreading it. It was all everyone was thinking about, now that the Ball had come and gone. Especially the girls, every one of them made sure that they got a date for tomorrow, because 'apparently' you just weren't pretty enough if you didn't get one. Hermione found this day the worst of them all, she had always thought of it as a joke, if people are in relationships aren't you meant to spend every single day showing that you love them, not just the once in a year. She never really understood why we should celebrate a Saint Valentines day, especially this year, as she had chosen to no longer believe in this thing called 'love'. Maybe her parents could have it, but after what happened between her and Fleur (if there ever was _her and Fleur_) she thought of Valentine as a complete idiot, if he really was real why couldn't he have made her be with Phlegm yet?

The girl's still hadn't spoken to each other, it had been another 2 months, and neither of them had given each other a second glance. Fleur was keeping her distance, so Hermione was keeping hers. If the girls ever did bump into each other – for whatever reason – they would simply turn their noses up at each other, before calmly walking away, neither one of them knowing about the hurt that would come from their hearts whenever they did so. Hermione had tried, but Phlegm wasn't willing to fight for her, so Hermione didn't fight back because she simply couldn't waste her time anymore or her heartache.

However, despite all this, it didn't stop Hermione from thinking about her, or even dreaming… she was always in her mind. No matter how hard she tried to get rid of any thought of her, she simply wouldn't leave, and seeing her around the school wasn't helping either – even if she did pretend to not notice her. But Hermione found that it became worse, now that it was coming up to this time of the year. She really wanted to talk to her, to ask her one simple question, but every time she tried her brain would lead her another way, telling her to ignore the girl; seeing as she was doing the same thing. But every day that went past this one thought never seemed to leave her mind, did Fleur ever think about her?

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><p><em>14th February 2006<em>

Hermione had just finished her potions class, and she, Harry and Ron were heading to Lunch. Harry and Ron were talking about the latest Quidditch match the whole way there, leaving Hermione to her own thoughts. That was until she felt something smack her head; she turned around to find two smirking faces.

"Harry!" she half-heartedly exclaimed back. This just lead the two boys to burst into laughter, which Hermione found she couldn't keep back either and soon joined in.

They were in the Entrance Hall now, and getting some strange looks from passers-by, but they were laughing too much to even care. Once they started to calm down, Hermione noticed what Harry hit her with – his newspaper. Before she even realised what she was doing, she snatched it out of his hand and started running. But she didn't get far as both boys had managed to catch up with her in seconds, and it wasn't long until both Harry and Hermione were wrestling each other for the paper. Ron was just finding the whole thing hilarious, that he hadn't noticed a fuming blonde haired girl making her way to them.

Fleur came storming up to the three fourth-years, anger written clear in her eyes. And before they knew it Harry and Hermione were being pulled apart. Hermione quickly looked to see who it was that clearly forced them away, and was surprised to find a familiar blonde Veela glaring at her. She would have glared back, if it wasn't for the strange look in the girls eyes, Hermione found herself towering a bit from the blonde's cold stare.

For a moment neither girl spoke, both too busy staring into each others eyes, to find anything to say. Hermione found that no matter how long she had kept away from the girl, the butterflies were still flying around in her tummy. After a few more beats, both girls' couldn't stand the silence anymore and both started to speak at the same time.

"What do you zink -?"

"What the hell -?"

Silence fell upon them again; Hermione used this as a chance to speak.

"I said what the hell Fleur?" she finished this time.

Fleur simply glared harder before answering.

"What ze 'ells do you zink you are doin'?" Fleur said stubbornly.

"What do you think _I'm_ doing? What do you think _you're _doing more like" Hermione replied "you have no right to pull us apart like that, when all we were doing was just messing around!"

"Oh zat was just messin' around was it? It didn't look zat way to me" Fleur spat back disapprovingly.

"How is messing around supposed to look then?" Hermione asked rhetorically "besides what's anything that I do have to do with you? It's not like we're together, we're not even bloody friends!" Hermione shouted back, anger building up inside her.

"I never zaid we were togezer, let alone friends! I just don't zink you should be doing zis kind of stuff een publeec" she pounced back.

"Well you can't tell me what I can and can't do ok? You lost that chance when you chose to ignore me" Hermione exclaimed.

"_I_ chose to ignore you, it waz you doin' ze ignorin'!" Fleur bellowed back, all her anger finally coming out. "Do you not realize 'ow much you hurt me!"

"Don't you dare point the finger at me Fleur; you're the one that hurt me!" Hermione shouted, her anger getting so high tears we're forming in her eyes "I have never cried over someone so much in my life, and then you come along and just stomp all over me -"

"YOU BROKE MY 'EART!" Fleur screamed out, tears now falling out of her eyes.

"AND YOU BROKE MINE!" Hermione yelled, just as loudly. They were getting so loud that even the teachers were starting to worry about them, but found that there wasn't anything they could do, because whilst they were yelling neither seemed to realise that they were causing fire to spread all around them – seeing as both girls held their wands in their hands tightly. They were both making it worse the angrier they got.

"You know what; I just can't take this anymore. I bloody HATE you Fleur!" Hermione shouted back, her anger starting to subside.

"GOOD! Because I 'ATE you too!"

"GOOD!"

"'REAT!"

"MARVELLOUS!" Hermione screamed back, sarcasm clear in her voice.

Then before the two of them new it, Fleur grabbed hold of Hermione's face and pulled her into a searing kiss. One that portrayed just how much she hated her, but couldn't hate her enough, and just when Hermione was about to kiss back Fleur pulled away. Then she slapped Hermione clean across her cheek, the sound was so sudden and loud that it caused everyone watching to gasp back. But Hermione wasn't going to let it slide, and instinctively slapped her back, just as hard. This caused more gasps, even the teachers where shocked.

Then just like that the fire, that was around them the whole time, burned away, leaving the two girls standing there speechless. Not fully realising what it was that they just did, until Hermione broke out into tears, once more, before running back to the common room. Harry and Ron quickly in tow – before giving Fleur the best evils they could muster. Hermione only thinking what a great Valentine's Day this turned out to be.

The only thing that could be heard was Hermione's now distant sobs, and Fleur repeatedly swearing in French, pushing anyone who dared get in her way.

The only thing that could be seen was two hearts, slowly braking…

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><p><em>So what did you think, loved it or hated it - either way let me know :D<em>


	9. Chapter 9 Forgiveness

_Sorry it's late but here's the next instalment... Enjoy! _

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><em>23rd May 2006<em>

Three months later and the girls hadn't even mentioned each other. Their thoughts may very well always be filled with each other, every second of every day, but they never looked let alone touched. Instead Hermione just imagined, she imagined the feel of Fleur's hands on hers again, the feel of her breath inches away from her gentle skin, the feel of her lips on hers…

Everyday she remembered their last encounter (how could she forget a moment like that); sometimes she still couldn't believe that she actually kissed her.

She longed to talk about her to Ginny, even Harry or Ron, anyone, but something was always stopping her from doing so. Another thing she just kept to herself, she knew they wanted to talk to her about it – just as much as she did – but whenever they tried Hermione would just give them – what they called – 'the look' and after a few more tries just slowly gave up.

She and Ginny don't even call her Phlegm anymore; they didn't call her anything seeing as they never talk about her now. And in a way Hermione kind of likes that, she doesn't want to think about her or talk about her (she gets the odd days but other than that she's perfectly content in not having to mention her name any more). She was just glad that she wouldn't have to see her perfect face again, or so she thought…

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><p>Hermione, Harry and Ron had just finished their Potions lesson, Harry was thankful they could finally leave. He'd had enough of the Slytherins constantly saying aloud sentences of newspapers or magazines that he found himself in. Even Snape was starting to join in, but then again Harry suspected that he enjoyed bullying him just as much as his house team. Hermione would tell him every lesson to just ignore them, but she'd decided to stop now seeing as the message never fully sunk in, yet again she left him to it.<p>

Seeing as Potions was their last lesson, all three of them decided it best to go back to the common room; there wasn't anything else to do anyway. Once they reached the fat lady Harry said the new password (Banana Smoothie), which each of them knew that she would change soon as it seemed she wasn't going to be having a Banana Smoothie anytime soon. She tiredly let them in, and the three made their way to the sofa by the fireplace – they always went their after lessons. But when they did enter, Harry and Ron in full conversation about some Quidditch thing again, Hermione was very shocked to find a madly grinning Ginny. Hermione started to think that the closer they got, the bigger her smile grew, and it was starting to frighten her a bit.

"What you done now Ginny?" Ron asked, not seeming that interested but he was starting to get just as freaked out as Hermione.

"Yeah, seriously Gin, what's up with you?" Hermione asked her playfully.

"Nothing much" she replied simply, shrugging her shoulders as she said this, her smile only going down by an inch.

This just got her 'really' looks from all three of them. Even George and Fred, walking past, weren't convinced.

"Ok, fine, but just to warn you it _was_ meant to be a surprise" she said looking Hermione right in the eyes. Hermione gave her a funny look in return, still not sure what was up with her.

"How can anything possibly be a surprise with your face looking like that" Harry said, pointing to Ginny's smile.

"It's not my fault that there's something amazingly spectacular upstairs in the girl's room, patiently waiting for a certain someone to find them" she told them quickly, a cheeky smile on her face. Hermione's face fell into confusion as she quickly repeated what she said in her head.

"Did you say the _girl's_ room, well who's it for then?" Hermione asked starting to get excited that it might be something romantic for one of the girls.

Ginny just smiled all over again, her eyes filled with happiness and excitement.

"It's for YOU, pea-brain" she said, rolling her eyes at Hermione.

"F-for me?" she asked, her mind suddenly filled with many unanswered questions. When she saw Ginny's head nod vigorously she just couldn't wait any longer, and as soon as they could blink, she was gone up the stairs, making her way to the dormitory.

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><p>Hermione opened the door so fast, she was surprised that it didn't come off its hinges. Hermione entered the room expecting to see a big present on her bed, or even her parent's smiling faces, but what she was not expecting was to see those perfect blue eyes, and smooth silky blonde hair. What she wasn't expecting was the girl she'd dreamt about every night, to be suddenly right in front her, at touching distance.<p>

Fleur Delacour was sitting, patiently, at the edge of her bed, her face expressionless – just like Hermione's. Neither moved, nor said a word, she could have sworn that Fleur wasn't even breathing whilst she was looking at her. Their eyes were the only things that they were communicating with, Fleur's eyes were filled with sorrow and longing, Hermione's were still filled with shock and a hint of happiness – though she wouldn't let her see this. Once Hermione finally couldn't stand the awkward, yet somehow comfortable, silence anymore, she decided to be the one to break it.

"Fl-Fleur, what are you doing here?" she asked, although she had an idea.

"I'm 'ere to zee you of courze" Fleur said plainly, but her eyes said it all.

"Why?" Hermione asked again, her face scrunching up in confusion.

"Because I want to apolo-" but before she could finish it off Hermione interrupted her.

"No, not _why_… I meant why here, why now!" Hermione spat back, acidly.

Fleur flinched at this, Hermione's anger taking its toll on her.

"I-I know zat I should 'ave zaid somethin' before, but 'ermione you 'ave to understand, eet was not zo easy for me" Fleur tried to explain.

"Oh, and you don't think it wasn't easy for me, having to pretend to not see you every second of everyday. It killed me, not being able to even go anywhere near you!" Hermione exclaimed.

"It killed me more… probably more zan you zink" Fleur said quietly. "Us Veela's, we're more gentle' zan you zink, when it comes to ze 'eart."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked quizzically. But before Fleur could even answer she said "no, don't tell me, I just..."

Hermione couldn't even finish what she was going to say because before she knew it, she broke into tears, everything was just getting too much for her.

"I just, I can't stand this anymore Fleur. This constant heartache… it's all just too much" Hermione explained, hot tears running fast down her cheeks. Fleur was beginning to cry too, just by looking at her.

"I can't ztand it eizer" Fleur said back, her lips quivering as she did so. "Zat is why I came 'ere in ze first place, I just wanted to tell you zat zis ignorin' is just not right"

Hermione nodded her head in agreement, her tears slowly settling into whimpers.

"Can we just… be friends" she said so quietly, she was shocked that Fleur could even hear her.

Fleur nodded back so fast, she was making her hair go crazy. This caused Hermione to giggle a bit, even Fleur started to chuckle too. The sound of it was like music to her ears, she hadn't realised how much she had missed the French girl until that very moment.

"I'd like zat, very much" Fleur said, looking into her eyes intently. Maybe being friends would hurt still, but Hermione would rather have that then not have Fleur at all.

Hermione couldn't stand there any longer, and suddenly she found herself wrapped up in the warmest and loving embrace she'd been in for months. She felt Fleur's arms around her again, her face nuzzling into her neck; Hermione's tears came flooding back but Fleur didn't care, she just held her tighter. Hermione found her heaven again and this time she never wanted to let it go.

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><p><em>So are you glad that they are friends or are you just dieing for them to be more already? hehe i know which one i'd want it to be :P plus<em>_ what did you think of it, good/ bad I don't mind just be sure to let know :D_****


	10. Chapter 10 Leaving

_Thank you for all your reviews, I'm happy to say that I have officially finished a story – This Story! It makes me feel so proud to say that, I have never completed one before he he __:) ... But, I'm afraid to say that I might not be able to do as much regular updates as I would like but trust me I shall try, for all my dear readers I shall :D but anyways enough of my rambling, please enjoy the next instalment :))_

_ Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><em>22nd July 2006<em>

During the days leading up to July, the girl's became inseparable, so much so that Hermione and Ginny ended up having a full-blown argument about how left out she was feeling. This went on for a few hours until the girls ended up bursting into tears, whilst apologizing.

The girls would spend every second of every day together, and found that even that wasn't long enough. Fleur even managed to get Hermione to find a way to sneak into each others rooms, just so they could spend the night together too (though they never did anything more than just cuddling in bed, seeing as that's what 'friends' do).

They became so close, Harry and Ron found that they had to add another person to their list of strange adventures, although Hermione never let Fleur go into their main secrets (like Sirius or the rise of Voldemort, who she later found out kidnapped Harry and used him to help bring him back to life, before they had a massive fight of course) seeing as she was too scared of her friends safety, much to the annoyance of Fleur.

The girls seemed to find that the more they spent together the more closer they got, though they would never let themselves get too close – for both their sakes – even if they did secretly wish they could inside. But amongst all this they also came to realise that time really does go fast when your having fun, because sooner than they thought it was the last day of school, meaning only one thing, it was time for Fleur to return to France…

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><p>Hermione's trunks all packed, Crookshanks happily, not, in his cage – which she was sure he'd break out of again. Hermione was all set and ready to go, she just wasn't ready to let someone else go.<p>

Hermione, Harry and Ron were waiting in the crowded Entrance Hall with the rest of the fourth-years for the carriages that would take them back to Hogsmeade Station. It was another beautiful summer's day, but Hermione couldn't help thinking how much more beautiful it must be in France – there was no way she'd get Fleur to stay here for another year.

Then just as the thought came to mind, she could hear a familiar voice coming from behind.

", 'Arry!"

They all turned to see Fleur Delacour hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Beyond her, far across the grounds, Hermione could see Hagrid helping Madame Maxime to back two of the giant horses into their harness. The Beuxbatons carriage was about to take off.

"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope" said Fleur, as she reached him holding out her hand. Hermione found that she wasn't all that jealous of this seeing as the two had gotten quite close since the time Harry saved Fleur from drowning (of course Hermione was mad with herself about that at first, but soon shook it off once she realised that Harry really was the only one who could have helped her). "I am 'oping to get a job 'ere, to improve my Eenglish."

"Really!" Hermione exclaimed a bit too enthusiastically. Fleur finally turned to look at Hermione, that's when she realised that this was the first day in a long time, that they hadn't spoken to each other right from the start of the morning. Hermione wasn't sure if that was a good thing, but she guessed from the way Fleur looked away instantly that it wasn't.

"It's very good already" Ron said, in a strangled sort of voice. Fleur smiled at him, Hermione scowled, she hated that Ron still felt something (but then again he couldn't help it, what with her being a Veela).

"Goodbye, 'Arry and Ron" said Fleur, still not fully looking at Hermione "It 'az been a pleasure meeting you!"

Then just as Fleur was about to turn and leave, Hermione found that she stopped her by grabbing hold of her wrist, pulling her back. Fleur turned slightly to look at Hermione, their eyes finally looking into each others again, Hermione gave her an attempted smile. It was all she could do to stop herself from crying, but when Fleur didn't smile back, she felt her world crashing down. Did she hate her already?

Hermione was on the brink of the tears, when she felt familiar warm arms wrap around her. Hermione wrapped her arms around Fleur's back, hugging her in return, nuzzling her face into the blonde's neck. She wanted to make sure she would remember every part of the girl, scared of ever letting go. Her tears finally falling; and it seemed Fleur's were too.

"I 'ave to go now Ma Cherie" Fleur said, calling Hermione by her new nickname, she'd been calling her everyday. Hermione smiled at this, but then it faded once she realised what else she said.

"Please don't go, Fleur" Hermione found herself asking. It took everything in her power to not kiss her right then, but she knew she shouldn't, it just wouldn't be right.

"I shall miss you dearly 'ermione, but we will meet again, I 'ope" Fleur whispered gently into her ears. Hermione cherished the feel of her breath on her skin, never wanting to forget it, never wanting to forget her.

"I'll miss you too, Fleur… so much" Hermione whimpered back. Fleur gently put her hands on Hermione's cheeks, making her look into her eyes even more. She then tilted her head down, and placed a soft, chaste kiss on her forehead. Hermione placed her hands over Fleur's, before bringing one of them up to her lips, where she kissed it back just as softly. She wanted to make sure Fleur wouldn't forget her either.

"Never forget me, Ok" it came out more of a command then a question, and Fleur knew this as she starts to nod her head furiously.

"Like I'd remember anyzing else" She whispers back, a slight chuckle coming out too.

Hermione gave her one chaste kiss on her cheek, making sure to remember the warmth and softness as she did so. They then slowly broke away, neither one ready to let go, but knowing they'd have to sooner or later. Then Hermione simply nodded her head, Fleur somehow understanding this nodded back and they both burst into giggles. Hermione knowing deep inside that she really was going to miss that, 'at least I made her smile all the way to her eyes for one last time' she thought to herself.

Hermione reached out for Fleur's hand one last time whilst saying "This isn't goodbye, Fleur".

Fleur just gave a weak smile back before saying "this isn't goodbye, 'ermione" she then quickly put Hermione's hand to her lips. Keeping it there a bit longer than usual, but all Hermione could do was just make sure to remember every last feel of her lips on her skin. Then she placed them lower onto her fingers and gave them a quick peck before letting go.

Fleur then turned around, picked up her bags, and with one last quick look behind her shoulders, she left. Making her way to the Beuxbatons carriage, Hermione holding in her tears, the whole time she was watching her leave. Just as she was about to go running after her, begging her to not leave, to tell her that she couldn't wait a whole year to see her again, two warm hands were placed on her shoulders. She looked to the owners and smiled at both Harry and Ron, and was then thankful that she had them there to help her through the crazy ordeal. She really did love them sometimes.

Then as soon as she could blink, the carriage took off, the horses neighing whilst flapping their wings. She felt tears come down her face, but at the moment she didn't seem to care seeing as she was too busy waving at the carriage flying off to take notice. Even though she knew that Fleur probably couldn't see her, she had a small feeling that Fleur was waving back too…

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><p><em>So was it what you expected, was it worse let me know i dont bite i swear ;), this isnt the end btw. theres still a lot more chapters to go, thats if you want me to continue haha, i won't know until you push that lovely review button down there, go on i know you want too :D<em>


	11. Chapter 11 New Year

_Let's looky-here, Oh another Chapter... Well this should be interesting hehe, belive me it is :P Kidding I'll leave that for you to decide... Enjoy!  
><em>

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><em>16th August 2006<em>

Hermione seemed to hate this holiday, it seemed to be going slower than usual. She and Ron were forbidden to talk to Harry – for some unknown reason – by Dumbledore, and this upset Hermione even more. She couldn't speak to Harry and she couldn't speak to Fleur, whom she guessed would have forgotten all about her by now. She hadn't spoken about the girl again with the others, finding it too painful to even mention her name, so instead she went back to not talking about her or thinking, though, the latter being the most hardest to do.

This is why she was at least thankful to be spending her holiday with the Weasley's again, as much as she loved being with her parents, she couldn't stand not having anyone to talk too. She also couldn't stand being left with her thoughts, which she found she couldn't be left with for too long a period. So when Mr and Mrs Weasley popped round to her house asking if she could stay, Hermione didn't even think twice before immediately packing her things.

So this is where Hermione had been staying for her summer holiday, and where she'll most likely be staying too, and even though all she's been doing the whole time is cleaning up a mouldy, looking house (which happened to be Sirius's, Harry's godfather) Hermione loved every minute of it.

Today, it seemed, was going to be different. Usually Mr and Mrs Weasley would remain in the dining room talking about the 'Order' and such. But today Mrs Weasley wanted to get out of the dirty house and decided that she would bring the 'children' to Diagon Alley to do a bit of school shopping. Even though Hermione had already gotten most her stuff already, she couldn't deny a chance to go outside and get some fresh air, so said 'yes' straight away.

Once everyone got up and ready, and Mrs Weasley rounded up the twins – whom kept apparating everywhere now that they where 'of age' – everyone said they're goodbyes and headed outside. Hermione didn't know how they were going to get there this time, but guessed that the twins would Apparate again. And it seemed she guessed right, for as soon as they all got outside the twins were gone, much to their mother's dismay.

"Fred, George – oh forget it, I guess we'll see them there" Mrs Weasley said exasperatedly.

"Come on, children, round up now then" she said to Hermione, Ron and Ginny, moving them all closer to her as she did.

"How are we all getting there?" Hermione had to ask, seeing as the question had been bugging her all day.

"Apparate of course, it's the easiest way. No time for all this faffing around business" Mrs Weasley replied simply. Hermione just silently agreed in reply.

"Come on then, take my arm, the lot of you and we'll be there in a blink of an eye" she told them. And true to her word, as soon as they all placed their hands on her arm, a second later Hermione was apparating somewhere.

Once Hermione opened her eyes, unwillingly, and her ears popped back to normal, she saw that she was in the familiar street of Diagon Alley, and a big smile spread across her face. It felt like a life-time ago since she was here last, seeing all the familiar shops, witches and wizards walking around buying their children their new school stuff. She could definitely guess who the new years were, seeing their tiny forms rushing past her with a new cat or owl by their side. Sometimes Hermione found it to be nice to get away.

"Oh, Fred, George! There you are" Mrs Weasley exclaimed, relief washing over her. "I'm just going to go see what the boys want for a moment, dears, I'll meet you all by Gringotts in 5 ok?" Mrs Weasley more or less told them. They didn't really have much say in the matter as she was off as soon as the last word left her mouth. This left Hermione, Ron and Ginny in the middle of an almost-crowded street not knowing where to go.

"Well, as much fun as it would be to hang around with you too girls, I think I'm just gonna check out the latest broomsticks" Ron said casually, walking off as he did so, leaving Hermione no time to answer back. And soon his face disappeared into the crowds, leaving just the girls instead. Hermione turned to Ginny and they simply shrugged their shoulders and started walking around.

Hermione wasn't planning on getting anything anyway, seeing as she hadn't much to buy, so she and Ginny started a casual walk and talk instead. And that's when Hermione noticed it, bright, silky blonde hair, the kind she'd only ever seen on one person. And she knew straight away that it just simply couldn't be anyone else, she didn't want it to be anyone else. Her heart started to beat faster at the very thought of it, 'was she really back?' Hermione asked herself. Ginny didn't notice Hermione's quietness until the girl didn't reply to what she was saying to her earlier, which she found out that Hermione wasn't even listening too anyway. Her mind seemed to be somewhere else, and Ginny hadn't the slightest idea why.

"Err, Hermione are you alright? You've gotten awfully quiet" Ginny stated, not sure whether to be worried or not.

"Oh, um… no it's ok, I'm fine" Hermione informed her friend, not wanting to worry the girl, even though she knew Ginny most likely didn't believe her. She just decided to shrug it off, and take her word for it, which Hermione was thankful for. She wasn't even sure if she could tell her friend what she saw, if she even saw anything.

Deciding to go with the idea that it was just her head playing up with her, Hermione went back to the conversation she and Ginny were having not a moment ago. Not noticing that across the street from her a certain blonde, had just noticed a certain bushy, brown haired girl.

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><p>The two girls had a little walk around, not buying anything in the end, and so decided it was time to head to Gringotts and meet Ginny's mother. When they got there Hermione half expected to see Mrs Weasley waiting at the entrance with a stern look on her face, seeing as they took longer than 5 minutes. But instead the girls were met with an empty entrance, with no one in sight, this kind-of worried Hermione a little. It was very strange for Mrs Weasley to be away from them for this long, not wanting anything to happen to them. So instead the girls chose to stay and wait there for a bit, and if Mrs Weasley still didn't come then they'd come back again later.<p>

Just as the girls were about to reach the entrance, Hermione found herself crashing into someone quite hard, seeing as bits of paper and quills went flying everywhere. And then Hermione heard it, memories came shooting back, ones that had taken her weeks to try and forget.

"Urgh, stupid Ingles' not looking where zey're goin',"

Hermione's enter world stopped. Those words, they were all it took for Hermione's heart to literally stop beating. Everything just seemed to do one thing, stop.

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><p>It <em>was<em> Fleur.

She really _was_ back.

And here she was standing right in front of Hermione, not even looking up to see who she had crashed into. And for a while Hermione was glad, part of her didn't even want to see the French beauty, too scared to see the French beauty. But then the other half – the stronger half – was dieing to see her, screaming to see her. But all Hermione could do was just stop and stare. She wanted to move, wanted to breathe, but she literally couldn't. It was almost like there was a wall blocking them off from each other, but it seemed it was only Hermione who could see. And from what she could see, Fleur hadn't seemed to have changed one bit.

It seemed she was just as gorgeous as ever, and Hermione hated it.

Fleur seemed to be wearing a simple light blue dress, which hung just past her knees nicely, also with a matching shawl to go with it. And instead of having her lovely, elegant hair hanging loose against her, she had it tied up into a simple ponytail, making her look even more graceful but just as radiant as ever.

This is when Fleur finally chose to look up, and as soon as she did Hermione's heart melted all over again. It was as if she'd never even left.

Their eyes connected almost instantly, and Hermione wanted so much to just grab her beautiful face and kiss her all over – she'd missed her so much. But she knew not too, she couldn't, not with Ginny standing right there. 'Oh god, Ginny's here' Hermione suddenly remembered, and she immediately turned to see if she really was still there or not. She was. And for some reason, Hermione couldn't help but blush.

The awkward silence starting to take a toll on her, she certainly hadn't missed this. And yet, nobody was still speaking. It seemed that nobody was going to either. Fleur was still crouched on the floor, from when she was scrambling to collect all the papers and quills, which Hermione noticed she still hadn't got yet. And as if her brain suddenly started to switch back on, she went shooting down on the floor, her hands grabbing all the papers left, quickly before they got blown away by the wind. Nobody still said anything. It was almost as if they couldn't, or even wouldn't.

Well at least Ginny wouldn't, as she was still standing there, just watching the situation unfold, trying not to laugh too. Hermione then realised that there wasn't anything else to collect so started to face the French girl again. She didn't want too, but she knew she would have too, seeing as she just had to 'help out'. She turned to see the still confused, but bewildered expression on Fleur's face, she didn't know if it was a good thing or not. She kind-of didn't want to know either, she just wanted to give the girl her things and go. But of course that wasn't going to happen.

"Erm, here's your stuff. I-I'm sorry, I should've looked where I was going, I really didn't mean too-"

"Ermione" Fleur interrupted. Just when Hermione's heart was starting to go back to normal, she had to go and say her name.

"Fleur" she said back, thinking that she could at least say that much, but it seemed her heart still stopped at just the sound of her name.

"Is zat really you?" Fleur asked her, her voice showing that what she asked was serious. But then again Hermione wanted to say the same thing too. This just all felt like a wonderful dream, one that Hermione knew she couldn't get out off.

Hermione was just too speechless to be able to reply back, so gave her a feeble nod, and this got Fleur coming back to reality as her face started to break out into a huge grin. And before Hermione even knew what was going on, she felt two familiar arms wrap around her, and Hermione found her heaven again. She hugged the blonde back, and found that she didn't want to let go, her arms were so warm, and she fitted so perfectly. But it seemed someone was determined to get involved too, Ginny.

Just as Hermione was starting to enjoy the hug, they both heard a loud 'fake' cough in the background. Hermione's eyes fluttered open and was met with Fleur's big, blue ones instead. But it seemed that their staring was to be cut off short, as another cough went off. This time both girls turned to face a smirking red-headed girl, whom seemed to have a little twinkle in her eyes, Hermione wanted to believe that it was friendly but she knew as much.

"Hello again, Fleur, long time, no see" Ginny greeted Fleur, extending her hand as she did so.

Fleur was quick to catch on this time, and instantly shook her hand.

"Yes, it 'as been too long" Fleur said back, but she seemed to be looking at Hermione as she said it.

"How have you been?" Ginny asked her politely, seeing as Hermione was still too shocked to say anything.

"I 'ave been good, I just came back 'ere actually" Fleur started to say but Hermione was quick to reply this time.

"Really? When?" she asked, her eyes lighting up as she heard this piece of news.

"A few days ago, I started practicin' my Eenglish as soon as I got 'ome. I still don't zink it's good though" Fleur told them honestly. Looking into Hermione's eyes the whole time, Hermione looked back.

"No, it's perfectly fine. It's perfect actually" she said, she really wanted to add 'just like you' but she shut herself up before she could.

Fleur just gave her that toothy smile in reply and Hermione's belly started to get butterflies all over again. Something she'd probably always get whenever she saw the girl.

"What brings you here then, to Diagon Alley?" Ginny asked this time, as the silence seemed to come back again. But only because the girls were too distracted in each others eyes than anything else.

"I just 'ad my first interview at Gringotts. I zink I did ok but I was extremely nervous" Fleur said, her eyes now actually looking at the person whom she was speaking too this time. Though Hermione wasn't too thrilled about that.

"Oh I'm sure you'll do fine, let me know if you got it won't you?" Ginny asked, to which Fleur just nodded before looking back at Hermione again.

Then Fleur broke out into a thousand watt smile, the one that Hermione noticed she had before when she saw her at the ball. Hermione wasn't sure why she had it this time, but then she saw where Fleur was looking and saw that she had noticed the necklace on her again. Hermione almost forgot she was even wearing it then, she'd been wearing it everyday since Fleur gave it back to her when they made up – all those months ago. Hermione couldn't go a day without wearing her precious pearls, it felt like she had lost someone every time she took it off, and Hermione hated that feeling the most. So decided to wear it everyday instead, plus she liked to show it off to anyone who noticed.

Hermione seemed to smile back, remembering this thought, it reached all the way to her eyes. She hadn't done a smile like that in a while.

"I really have missed you, Fleur" Hermione seemed to have said before she was even thinking. She mentally slapped herself when she realised that she'd said it, but then saw that it was ok when Fleur gave her an almost loving look back.

"I 'ave missed you too, 'Ermione" she said back. Hermione melted right then and there, she was literally a puddle on the floor, after hearing her say that. She thought she'd never hear her say that.

Ginny noticed her mother making her way to them, she'd finally got here, but she didn't look all too pleased to see the girls talking to Fleur.

"Erm, as much as I want to leave you too being all soppy and all, we have to go now. My mum's waiting for us" Ginny told Fleur, apologetically.

"Non, it's ok, I must go now too" Fleur said back, looking at Hermione as if asking for her permission. Hermione gave her it, even though she didn't know why she should in the first place. They were just friends, right?

"I guess I'll see you around, Miss Fleur Delacour" Hermione half-heartedly said, this gaining a chuckle from Fleur.

"Oui, you shall, most definitely Miss 'Ermione Granger" they both chuckled back to this. Neither one wanting to leave really, but knowing that they must.

"Friends?" Hermione asked, extending her hand as she did so.

"Friends" Fleur replied, shaking her hand in return. And as soon as they did, Hermione found that her arm got goose bumps again this made her smile even more.

After the girls reluctantly let go, Fleur turned to leave, but not before giving Hermione one last glace behind her shoulder. 'Just like she did when she left to go home' Hermione couldn't help but remember, and she felt like crying all over again. And with that the French blonde was gone, bringing all her papers and quills with her. All accept one, which Hermione had only just realised was in her hand. She must have forgotten to give it back, but then she saw that it was folded, and she definitely didn't remember doing that. So the girl instinctively unfolded it to see that familiar, elegant handwriting again, but this time it said something else.

_ 'Just think of me, and I shall be there' _

And just like that, an image of Fleur showed up in the background of the paper. Her face was smiling back at Hermione, her bright blue eyes twinkling in the light. Hermione hugged the paper to her chest, smiling like a bafoon, before turning around to face her red-headed friend. But when she did she ended up facing two of them. Ron was stood beside his sister, both of whom were wearing that knowing smirk on their faces. Hermione rolled her eyes before saying "don't say anything".

Ron and Ginny just put there hands up, as if surrendering, but Hermione knew that they'd take a mickey out of this for a while. She had so much to look forward too.

"Was it just me or was Fleur looking a bit pale" Ginny asked curiously. Hermione just shrugged.

"Really, I hadn't noticed" she said, this getting grins on both her friends faces. On realising this Hermione just playfully punched them on the arm before they started to head to Mrs Weasley and the twins, Hermione's hands instantly touching her precious pearl necklace as they did so.

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><p><em>Hey sorry about the little mix-up before, i didnt mean to get you guys so worried about the story, i swear this still has a few more chapters to go, and that's all thanks to you my lovely readers :D I seriously love you guys right now and all of your loyalty to this story, it really means a lot... so thanks and free hugs from me - feel the love people hehe :)) <em>

_You know the drill, **Review** because i know you want to tell me that you love me too, or at least spread the news of how awesome we all are - because everyone is cool in my books ;)  
><em>


	12. Chapter 12 That Can't Be True

_Hi guys! Sorry it's been a while, but it's been pretty hectic, what with all the christmas stuff going on hehe. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and alerted, it's means a lot to me so Cheers :D Well, heres the next update, hope it's ok... Enjoy!  
><em>

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><span>Chapter Twelve – That Can't be True<span>

_27th August 2006_

"HARRY! Ron, he's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh how _are _you?" And here came the never-ending questions. Hermione didn't mean to babble away, but she hadn't seen Harry in, what felt like, a lifetime and so couldn't help but parade him with questions.

Hermione noticed that Harry seemed to have grown since she last saw him, but then again Ron had gone shooting up too, he looked a lot paler than usual as well. He wore his usual top and trousers, with a light jacket on top, Harry never really having time to wear anything else. But through all of this, Hermione could see that deep down inside he was still the same, kind-hearted Harry she always knew. Except this time he seemed to be lot angrier, mainly because of the fact that nobody had written to him all summer, she really did feel bad about that.

Everything seemed to be going fine too, that was until Ron had to open his mouth about not being able to write to him. Harry was getting angry at this, Hermione could tell.

"He seemed to think it was best" said Hermione, rather breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

"Right" said Harry, Hermione saw him look at her hands, which had gotten a few bite marks from Hedwig. They were starting to heal now, though.

"He was so angry" said Hermione, in an awestruck voice. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he had found out that Mundungus had left before his shift ended, he was scary."

"Well I'm glad he left" Harry said coldly "if he hadn't I would have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer."

"Aren't you… aren't you worried about the Ministry hearing?" Hermione said quietly.

"No" Hermione could tell that he was lying. But she didn't say anything; she knew not to push him, seeing as he was annoyed enough as it was.

She guessed right too because not a minute more Hermione found she was being shouted at by none other than Harry. Ron didn't know what to do or say, considering every time he did Harry just got angrier. Hermione decided to keep quiet too, she had tried to apologize but it seemed Harry wasn't listening, he yelled at them anyway.

"Harry, we're really sorry!" said Hermione desperately, tears starting to form in her eyes. "You're absolutely right. I'd be furious if it was me!"

Harry just glared at her before turning away. He started to pace up and down again; Hedwig on his shoulders the whole time, there was a long pause.

"What _is _this place anyway?" he asked Ron and Hermione.

"Head-quarters of the Order of the Phoenix" said Ron at once

"It's a secret society, Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought you-know-who last time" Hermione informed Harry, he looked at her gratefully for this.

"So, what have you two been doing around here then? You said you've been busy" Harry asked them calmly. Hermione was thankful for the subject change, she didn't think she could handle the intense atmosphere anymore.

"We have, we've been decontaminating this house, and it's been empty for ages and stuffs been breeding in here. We've managed to clean most of the house, but it's a bit har – AARGH!"

Fred and George had just apparated again and Hermione wasn't all too pleased. She hated it when they did that, especially when she wasn't prepared.

"Stop _doing _that!" she said weakly to the twins.

And it wasn't long until the door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.

"Oh, hello Harry" said Ginny, brightly "I thought I heard your voice" Hermione just tried not to chuckle at this, it seems she always hears his voice.

She then turned to the twins.

"It's a no-go with the Extendable Ears, I'm afraid. Mum's gone and put an imperturbable charm on the kitchen door."

Fred heaved a deep sigh, Hermione could tell that he was really looking forward to hearing more information about the Order. So instead of talking about the Order, the conversation seemed to have changed to Ron's brothers, whom Harry wanted to be caught up on. He had a lot to catch up on, he was starting to realise.

"Is Bill here?" Harry asked "I thought he was working in Egypt?"

"He applied for a desk job, so he could come home and work for the Order too" said Fred "he says he missed the tombs but" he smirked "there are compensations."

"What d'you mean" Harry asked, Hermione seemed to be curious too, she actually hadn't managed to get the full low-down on Bill yet.

"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" said George "she's got a job at Gringotts to _eemprove 'er eenglish_"

"She got the job!" Hermione exclaimed she certainly didn't know about that. She hadn't spoken to the girl in what felt like months all over again.

"Yeah, and Bill's been giving her loads of privet lessons" sniggered Fred. Hermione immediately snapped out of her Fleur-phase, once she heard that last comment. She wasn't even sure she heard him right, but before she could do anything her anger got the better of her.

"He's WHAT!" Hermione's excitement seemed to have now changed at this piece of information. That couldn't be right, could it?

Fleur simply couldn't do that to her, and with Bill of all people.

"Well, yeah, haven't you been listening to anything the man has to say? He's certainly glad he's found something to boast about now" George said, a grin playing on his face.

"No, that can't be true" Hermione chose to believe, she didn't even want a reply but she knew that the twins would anyway, seeing as she hadn't told them about the French girl yet.

"Erm, yes?" Fred asked cautiously, not sure whether he should say anything at all, but Hermione's face said it all.

"NO!" She shouted it was so unexpected that even Hedwig got scared, and started flapping around the room in fright.

'She couldn't, she shouldn't, she just simply wouldn't!' Hermione thought, her anger building up with every passing thought. Then just when she tried to get herself to calm down, a mental image of Fleur and _Bill _popped into her head, leaving her permanently scarred for life. The image just wouldn't go away, no matter how much she tried. Tears were even starting to fall because of her frustration, and heart-ache. How could she do this to her?

All of a sudden Hermione realised that she had a small ring of twittering yellow birds circling her head, she hadn't done this spell in a while. They were supposed to calm her, but the image kept coming to her mind. Hermione's blood was starting to boil.

"Hermione?" was the last thing she could hear, before she burst with anger and pain.

"_Oppugno_!" Came a loud shriek.

Everyone turned to see Hermione pointing her wand at the door, her expression was fuming: the little flock of birds suddenly went speeding like a hail of fat golden bullets straight towards the wooden door, they kept going too until they all hit the door with a loud 'thud', one after the other. The Weasley's and Harry all turned, with a mixture of shock and bewilderment, to a crying Hermione heaped on the floor. Her heart lying with her.

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><p><em>Please don't hate me, but well There had to be some angst sometime hehe :) I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year! :D<em>


	13. Chapter 13 It's Not Really You

_Hey, hey, hey, how you guys doing? Apologize again for the late update but it's still pretty hectic... But i'm getting there. And so is the story actually, so much so that this is technically the last chapter guys. I know i'm going to miss this story but hey its been a fun ride and i'm so thankful for all those that participated in this ride with me... it means a lot so thank you :D _

_I'd like to give a special shoutout to YuffeGetsBears, Zelda's Hero, WriteorFlight, Sora Yagami, Wolfie714 and Rioshix for being through my story with me, from beginning to end. You guys are the reasons why this story has been going strong... Thank you all so much ;D _

_P.S to Rioshix, my most loyal reviewer, and now also my inspiration because not only did your reviews leave me with a massive smile on my face, but they also influenced me to write a short story, which i plan to update soon. It's gonna be my first glee fanfic, and thanks to you and your wonderful review about my name sounding like something Brittany would say, it's given me an idea to use that saying for my fic, so thank you dearly... I hope you shall be reading it soon :D _

_Anyways, enough ramblings lets get you on to the chapter, hehe... Enjoy!  
><em>

_Disclaimer: I have used words from J.K Rowling in this story… I'm not trying to copyright I swear, just letting her help me for now. _

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><p><span>Chapter Thirteen – It's not really you<span>

_12th December 2007_

The sound of feet crunching in the snow is the only thing that can be heard in the quiet morning of December. Hermione walks through Hogsmeade, in the freezing cold, by herself, having just her thoughts as her company. The cold weather starting to get to her cheeks and nose, as they turn bright red. Hermione can tell that she's starting to get a cold by the light sniffs she does every now and then, and yet she still finds herself walking around the street that she's become so familiar with these last five years. She can't help but feel at home, as she walks by, waving at the people she's come to meet and know, then goes back to her silent thinking. She finds that she's been doing a lot of this since school started, even before that really. Sometimes she doesn't even remember what she is thinking of, she just knows that she's doing it, and other times she knows exactly what she's thinking about – or more like of whom.

Ever since that summer afternoon, when her heart got ripped out of her and slowly kicked about by _Bill_, she's found that she has been constantly thinking about that exact day. That exact thought that she was thinking of before she broke down, no matter how much she tries to ignore it, the image still comes back to haunt her.

It's been one year and four months, a whole sixteen months of tears and heartbreak, something she thought she'd never have to go through again once her and the French Veela made up. But it seems that life hasn't been so kind, she can't even look at _Bill _anymore, it just hurts her heart too much when she does. To think that she almost fell for the woman too, to think that she used to cherish that silly picture she gave her or the stupid necklace. Hermione almost broke the thing more than once, but simply couldn't go through with it… Hermione just shakes her head at the fact that she's wearing it now. She almost ripped the picture to shreds too, just like how the woman ripped her heart, but Hermione still stares at it every night… she still has it in her pocket. She finds it funny how love can be so painful, but not at the same time.

There isn't a day that goes by that Hermione doesn't think about the French beauty, before she starts to cry that is. She's always crying, it's even starting to get on her nerves now, but she can't seem to control it, the tears just keep falling down. She doesn't know what she'd do without Ginny – that girl has been like an angel to her, ever since that painful summer day. Even Harry has been a godsend, though she can't really say the same about Ron – except for that one day, Hermione's thoughts on the boy definitely changed on that one conversation they had.

And it seemed that with all these thoughts and images flying around in her head, Hermione didn't seem to notice that one, blonde, silky hair blowing in the wind just a metre behind her.

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><p>Hermione was just about to enter the Hogshead pub, seeing as her body was slowly starting to freeze with how long she'd been outside for, when she felt it. That one touch and she was gone. All it took was for her to feel that tingle again and everything came flooding back.<p>

"Hermionee"

A slight shiver went down her spine, and she knew it wasn't because of the cold, if anything her body seemed to have forgotten all about that as she was now perspiring like mad. Her body-heat sky rocketing, she thought she'd never feel that touch or hear that voice again. And apart of her didn't want too, that part of her was keeping her from turning around, even though that's the only thing she really wanted to do.

"Hermionee, is 'that you"

She wanted to say 'yes' so bad, she wanted to scream it out loud, but her mouth wasn't moving. She wanted to say so much right then, but she just couldn't, she'd never felt so weak before. That touch was still on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off, although she didn't really want to. The warmth left her as soon as she did, the coldness coming back instantly.

"Fl-Fleur" she whimpered.

She hated how quite it came out; she hated how vulnerable she sounded. Hermione just hated everything – including the girl she knew was right behind her.

Even though she couldn't see it, she knew that Fleur had nodded her head, out of instinct, before realising that Hermione wouldn't be able to see her.

"Oui" she said simply.

For a moment Hermione thought that the girl might have lost her French accent by the way she was now speaking, she sounded too English, Hermione didn't like it.

"If it was really you, you wouldn't have said my name the way you did. Fleur never said my name the way you did" Hermione mumbled out, but she knew that the girl could understand her. After all, it _was_ Fleur, and she always understood her, even when no one else did.

"Then I 'shall say eet again, eff you would like… 'Ermione"

Now she was really gone, she was gone so much that she couldn't even stand anymore. Her body just seemed to have crashed out all on its own, and before the bushy haired lady knew it, everything around her was black.

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><p>When Hermione slowly awoke, the sound of chattering and chairs screeching was the first thing she could hear. Then her blurry-eyed vision could see a wooden table, with a glass of water on top of it, she looked up more and could see a straw spinning around inside by itself. When she looked further up she could see a smooth, gentle hand making the straw spin by itself. That's when Hermione remembered it all, the touch, the voice, the memories that came back to her, and the blackout. Hermione's head shot up off of the rough table as embarrassment hit her. Once she did her eyes immediately landed on the owner of the hand she had saw earlier. She knew who it had belonged too, but something inside her chose not to believe it, until now.<p>

"Ahh, Ma Cherie has finally awoken, hmm" she heard Fleur say, before giving her that all too familiar toothy grin, Hermione didn't like it, she never used to grin, she only ever smiled. Why wasn't she smiling?

"Don't call me that. Only Fleur can call me that" Hermione snapped.

Fleur's perfect face instantly scrunched up, her eyebrows knitted together. Hermione found that she didn't like that either.

"I 'am Fleur, unless you know 'of anozer Fleur I 'haven't met before" Fleur said, a little giggle coming out at the end. Hermione didn't like the way she giggled, it wasn't as musical as before.

"Just stop, okay. Please, just stop" Hermione spat out. Her anger getting the better of her, she didn't like this; she didn't like any of it.

"Stop what?" Fleur bit back, her annoyance starting to build up too. Hermione seemed to like that.

"EVERYTHING! All of this 'I'm Fleur so I can call you Ma Cherie' crap, you don't even say it right!" Hermione was now shouting at her.

She knew that she shouldn't, this wasn't how she imagined talking to Fleur again would be like. She thought that they had settled their petty arguments, but on the other hand she loved it. She loved seeing the anger and hurt appear on 'Fleur's' face.

And then just when Hermione thought that she had Fleur up to her boiling point, the Veela just deflated. She wanted to see her inner monster come out, but instead all she got was a sad, innocent looking French woman. And Hermione knew that she definitely didn't like that.

"You know what, 'forget eet. I can't be bozered with you and your childish ways anymore" Fleur said quietly, but not so quiet that the younger girl couldn't hear her.

Fleur grabbed her leather coat, that Hermione hadn't even realised was placed on top of her, had one last gulp of her drink before quickly getting up to leave. Hermione was so gob smacked by what she had heard that it took her a bit longer to fully realise what was going on, until she heard her footsteps start to get fainter did Hermione get up too. She wasn't going to let her escape that easily, not without an explanation. She grabbed her purse and placed the right amount of money on the table before she hurriedly chased after the blonde woman. She got to the old, wooden pub doors and flew them open, the cold air hitting her face instantly. Hermione was suddenly starting to regret her decision until she noticed the silky, blonde hair fading away in the distance. Hermione legged it out of the door, chasing after the woman as fast as she could.

"Don't you walk away from me? You say your Fleur, but believe me I know that your not, you may look like her but your nothing like her. You're not the Fleur that I knew!" Hermione exclaimed.

She wasn't meant to say it, but at the spur of the moment everything she had just been thinking seemed to have come out and Hermione wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. But it seemed to be as it made the older lady stop in her tracks. Hermione saw her slowly turn around and she could have sworn that for a fraction of a second she was so hurt and distraught that her face looked like she had just been kicked whilst she was down. But when Hermione blinked Fleur's face went back to that angry look she had seen not a moment ago. Hermione winced when the girl started to make her way over, not once leaving eye contact – Hermione being too afraid to do so.

"I'm not the only one 'who 'has changed you know. I see 'Ermione but I don't see 'her at the same time" Fleur said through gritted teeth.

She didn't want to be mad at her and Hermione knew it, but Hermione wanted Fleur to be, she wanted her to feel just as upset as she was feeling now.

"Yeah and how does that work out? It's only been a year and four months, like we could have changed that quickly" Hermione pounced back.

"It is part of growing up 'Ermione, we are not supposed to be the same girls we once knew. I've grown up, maybe you should do a little growing up yourself" Fleur said acidly.

Hermione froze on those words, it was like time had just stopped, was Fleur really seeing her as a little girl? Is that what she had become now, nothing more but an irritating little girl? Hermione didn't like this thought the most.

"Fleur I-I know… I know" Hermione whispered out.

It was like everything was just beginning to dawn on her and once it did she couldn't believe why she hadn't realised it before.

She was acting like a little girl because she hated the fact that Fleur had grown up. Within the amount they had seen each other since Fleur left to go home, Hermione realised that Fleur was suddenly starting to act her age. Just like she should be it was just like she had said. And it was because of this that Hermione didn't like Fleur, or she didn't like the 'new Fleur' because she wasn't like how she was when Hermione had said goodbye. Hermione had been so upset about believing what the twins said that day that she herself had forgotten to do a little growing up. She had gone back to being the innocent little child she never got to be. And it was only now that Hermione realised that she didn't want to be that little child anymore. She couldn't be, else she would lose the one good thing that had ever happened to her. The French beauty standing in front of her. That's when Hermione realised that she didn't want to do any growing up because she didn't want to accept the fact that she was falling for Fleur. To grow up was to take responsibility, and Hermione didn't want to be held responsible for her own heart break. She didn't want to be the reason why she cried at night. Hermione didn't hate Fleur, in fact it was the total opposite.

She loved her. She loved the touch, she loved the voice, and she even loved her new accent. She loved the way she scrunched her face when she was confused, she loved the way she looked when she was getting mad. Hermione hated how she made her look so vulnerable, so hurt. She loved how after all this time the girl was still staring at her, the way Fleur always stared at her. She loved seeing that small twinkle in her eyes, whenever their eyes would find each other. She loved how the girl was waiting for her to finally realise, she wasn't leaving. She loved her eyes, her grin, her musical laughter, and the way she would only do that toothy smile for her. She loved Fleur. Hermione loved everything about Fleur. She was in love with her; it was as simple as that. And it had only taken her until now, to realise it.

"Fleur I-I'm so sorry, for everything. I _was_ being a child, I see that now. But I don't want to be like that anymore, I don't want to be hurt anymore. I'm fed up of being miserable, and I know that you won't let me be miserable, not anymore. I _need_ you Fleur. I need you so much" Hermione told her, she told her everything, she told her the truth. And the French Veela knew this.

Before Hermione knew it she was being scooped into a tight, warm embrace, one that she hadn't been in, in a very long time – one that she had missed and longed for all this time. She just wanted to be with her Fleur.

"Don't leave me, please. Don't choose Bill. I don't think I could take it if you were with him instead" Hermione admitted, her mouth spoke before she even thought about it.

"What, Ma Cherie what are you talking about?" Fleur asked her, scrunching her face in that way that Hermione loved.

"The twins, they said that you and Bill, you' know because you work together at Gringotts"

If Hermione was embarrassed before, it was nothing compared to now. It seemed that whatever the younger lady had said wasn't true as Fleur had burst into laughter.

"I am sorry, I do not mean to laugh, Ma Cherie. It's just that that is the silliest thing I 'have ever heard" Fleur told her, once her laughter died down.

"So, it's not true, Bill and you"

"What Bill and I, there 'has never been and will never be a 'Bill and I'. To even 'think so would be so silly, Ma Cherie I only work with the man. Yes I admit we might seem like we have been getting 'too close' but 'that is only because 'he has offered to 'help me with my English" Fleur explained, looking Hermione straight in her eyes as she did so.

"But, the twins an-and Bill" Hermione muttered, confusion now hitting her.

"Never listen to the twins 'Ermione. And as for Bill, well I'll sort 'him out at work, 'how dare 'he say anything of the sort, when I am clearly taken, non?" Fleur dared to ask.

Hermione went quiet as she repeated everything the lady had said from when she admitted the Bill-thing to now. It had all seemed so stupid and silly now that Hermione had fully thought about it. How could she have ever thought that Fleur would do such a thing and with Bill of all people, it just seemed so highly ridiculous now. And it wasn't until then that Hermione noticed, she finally realised what the blonde had just asked. She asked her if she was taken, did she mean that in the way Hermione thought she did. She surely hoped so.

"Yes?" Hermione dared to ask back. Not sure if that was the right answer.

But she knew that it was once she saw the twinkle in Fleur's eyes grow twice as big, just like her smile did, the one she loved so much. She really did love this girl, and it annoyed Hermione that she had only just figured this out now.

"Yes" Hermione confirmed, before her lips were connected with Fleur's.

'Their second-first kiss' Hermione thought. She wanted this one to be the kiss that she would remember as their first, simply because she knew that this one actually meant everything she could feel. Plus she knew that she wouldn't get slapped afterwards, or at least she hoped so. Hermione never wanted it to end, she was on cloud nine and she didn't feel like coming back down to earth. Not yet at least. Fleur's lips were so soft and gentle, just the way she remembered them being. The butterflies flying around in her stomach came shooting back and sent tingles all throughout her, she never wanted this feeling to end.

But once the need for air became too important, the girls finally agreed to come back. Fleur pulled back first, as it was clear that Hermione wasn't going to stop anytime soon. This just made the French beauty laugh, and once Hermione fluttered her eyes open and saw Fleur and her cute laughter Hermione couldn't help but join in too.

"Oh my gosh I love you" Hermione chuckled, but instantly stopped once she realised what she had said.

That wasn't meant to be said out loud. Hermione got even more worried when Fleur stopped laughing too. But Hermione knew that she had nothing to worry about when she saw the look in her eyes.

"I love you too 'Ermione" Fleur said, so quietly that Hermione wasn't sure she even heard her.

But Hermione knew that she had said it, just by the look in her eyes.

Hermione really did love Fleur.

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><p><em>Well what did you think, was it good, bad, sactisfactory enough, i pray that it is because well every author wants their endings to go down well. I think it's ok, it's how i imagined it to end and i just pray that it held just the right amount of drama and fluff, i didnt want there to be too much of either hehe :) <em>

_Oh and one more thing, their **shall** be an epilogue but after that i'm afraid this story really will come to an end, make sure to bring tissues because it's gonna be emotional... not really hehe :P _

_Don't forget to hit that review button down there and let me know what you think, it may be the last time for you to do so :( _


	14. Chapter 14 Epilogue

_The final chapter guys, I hope you all enjoy it!  
><em>

_Disclaimer: No Copyright intended. _

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><p><span>Chapter Fourteen - Epilogue<span>

_26th January 2012_

Mr and Mrs Hazinary – a married couple, middle eighties.

_So tell us, how did you two meet? _

Joseph Hazinary: I was sitting with my friend Arthur, it was at a Rowland Island cafeteria, and this beautiful girl walked in (turning towards his wife) and I turned to Arthur and said 'Arthur you see that girl, I'm going to marry her' and 2 weeks later we were married. Over 50 years later and we're still married. (Wife pats her husband on the arm, before they both smile).

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><p>Mr and Mrs Sanders – a married couple, late seventies.<p>

_How did you two meet?_

Paullina Sanders: we fell in love at high school

Thomas Sanders: yeah, we were high school sweethearts

Paullina: But then after our junior year his parents moved away

Thomas: But I never forgot her

Paullina: He never forgot me

Thomas: Her face was burned on my brain, and it was 34 years later, that I was walking down Broadway, that I saw her come down Tuff 'n' Eddies

Paullina: we looked at each other it was just as though not a single day had gone by

Thomas: She was just as beautiful as she was at 16

Paullina: he was just the same, he looked exactly the same

(Looking deeply into each others eyes)

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><p>Mr and Mrs Linting – a married couple, late eighties.<p>

_Tell us the story of how you met each other?_

Wayne Linting: a man came to me and said 'I found nice girl for you, she lives in the next village and she is ready for marriage'. We were not supposed to meet until the wedding but I wanted to make sure, so I sneak into her village behind a tree, and I watched her washing the clothes. I think if I don't like the way she looks, I don't marry her. But she looked very nice to me so I said 'okay' to the man 'we get married'. We've been married for fifty-five years. (Wife sits nodding and smiling).

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><p>Mr and Mrs Burns – a married couple, late thirties.<p>

_So, how did you to meet each other? _

Harry Burns: the first time we met we hated each other

Sally Burns: you didn't hate me I hated you, the second time we met you didn't even remember me

Harry: I remembered you, the third time we met we became friends

Sally: we were friends for a long time

Harry: and then we weren't

Sally: and then we fell in love, three months later we got married

Harry: it only took three months

Sally: twelve years and three months

(Both sit there nodding, then look at each other smiling).

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><p>Mrs and Mrs Granger-Delacour – a married couple, mid twenties.<p>

_We're just interested in how you met, so tell us, how did you meet? _

Hermione Granger-Delacour: I wouldn't really call it meeting, I'd say it was more of an encounter

Fleur Granger-Delacour: Oui, 12 classic encounters (both sit smiling, trying not to laugh at the memories).

_Well what were your 12 encounters? _

Hermione: Well our first encounter was when I first saw her. I was in year 10, and my school were having this foreign exchange where two other schools would be joining ours. Fleur's being one of them, and I remember seeing her walk past me and my world just kind-of stopped.

Fleur: Oui, I 'had only just seen her too and I knew. It was love at first sight (looking at each other lovingly).

Hermione: the second encounter would be how we, technically 'met'. She came to my table to ask for the bouillabaisse

Fleur: Ahh, you still remember 'the food

Hermione: of course I do, (looks at her like she's crazy) how could I forget (both staring at each other, smiling)

Hermione: then the third encounter, I'm not even sure if Fleur remembers it-

Fleur: I remember it (nodding her head)

Hermione: was when I was quickly walking up the stairs and I accidentally bumped into her. It was rather funny; she went storming off not even looking at me

Fleur: that's not true, I did look, I remember turning around after I had walked off – I wanted to see who it was – and then all I saw was big, bushy hair and I instantly knew

Hermione: my hair wasn't that bushy (looking at wife annoyed)

Fleur: just a bit (says quietly)

Hermione: well anyway (giving wife a stern look before turning away), our fourth encounter was when we had our first conversation, we spoke for nearly a whole hour, and I remember I didn't want to leave her

Fleur: me eizer (smiling at wife).

Fleur: Now for our fifth one, I wouldn't be surprised if 'Ermione didn't know about this, but it was actually when she got asked to go to the ball –

Hermione: our school did a little ball for the exchange students, to kind of make them feel welcomed (she interrupts, wife gives her a little glare) what you can interrupt me but I can't you?

(Wife raises eyebrow)

Well, carry on then (she leans back, arms crossed, annoyed look on face)

Fleur: as I was saying, she got asked by zis 'hardly charming man, _Viktor_, (scrunches face in disgust)

Hermione: she never liked him

Fleur: I was on my way to the library to ask her myself, but it turned out I was a bit too late, she 'had already said 'yes'. I must admit I was a tad bit jealous… and upset

Hermione: so that _was_ you I saw then, I thought I saw a bit of blue, no wonder you ignored me. We didn't speak to each other for a while after that

Fleur: not until our sixth encounter, which was actually at ze ball, we had it in December, it was near Christmas.

Hermione: we had a bit of an argument there, which led us to not speak to each other again until Valentines Day

Fleur: Ahh, Valentines Day, now 'that I cannot forget (both laughing a bit), we had another argument.

Hermione: she was jealous

Fleur: only a bit (says unbelievingly) ok a lot, that was why we had the argument. We had our first kiss too and still ended up not speaking to each other for another few months

Hermione: because you slapped me that's why.

Fleur: you slapped me too (giving each other a staring test, before Hermione turns away, annoyed look still on face)

Fleur: but it was because of that which led to our next encounter where we forgave each other and became friends

Hermione: we stayed friends too (looking at each other lovingly again)

Fleur: then I had to leave, to go back to France. We thought that would be our last encounter, we didn't know if we would meet each other again

Hermione: but we did promise to write to each other (both nodding heads at this)

Hermione: and it turned out that we did meet up again, our tenth one was when we bumped into each other during the summer holidays, and we promised to be friends again.

Hermione: The next one actually Fleur doesn't know about, because she wasn't even there, it was when I first heard that you got the bank job, and when I heard about Bill and you

Fleur: 'that was pointless; 'there was no Bill and I (shaking head and looking away in annoyance)

Hermione: well I know that now, but I _was _very heartbroken about that. (Turns away looking sad)

Fleur: and then our last encounter was when we finally got togezer. (Looking into each other's eyes) and it only took us two years and a half to finally admit our feelings (both chuckle at this)

Hermione: Fleur proposed a few months later

Fleur: it was very romantic, even I have to admit that (both nod in agreement)

Hermione: and we got married a year after that, to be honest it would have been sooner had it not been for the fact that I was only sixteen turning seventeen when she proposed, so we waited until I was eighteen, and we had the most amazing wedding

Fleur: it really was beautiful, just like 'her (looking at wife as she said this, wife blushing before looking away)

Fleur: we 'had our gorgeous daughter two years later and we are on our way to anozer one (strokes wife's tummy happily). We 'have been married for four years since then.

Hermione: four years! (Looks sort-of shocked at this revelation)

Fleur: four wonderful years (looking livingly into each other's eyes) and I know 'that we shall be married for many more years to come (both smile proudly)…

_FIN!_

_(The End!)_

* * *

><p><em>Well, thats it fowkes. The story has reached its ending and i can only pray that it was good enough, thank you for everyone who stuck with this story from the beginning, did you think this was a good way to end it? And thank you to everyone else who read this too, you guys made writing this fic so much more bareable hehe :D <em>

_Anyways, its been a long journey, espiacally for these girls ;) one that i do not regret takeing at all, this story has left me with a smile on my face, and i can only hope that its done the same for you too, leave a review to let me know... and once again Thank You :D_


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